Naira redesign: Governors trying to hurriedly use hoarded billions to pay salaries – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is monitoring some state governors who hid billions of naira in various houses.

The EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa made this known in an interview with Daily Trust on Thursday, November 3, SaharaReporters reports.

This comes on the back of the recent announcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it will redesign some naira notes.

Bawa said the governors are planning to pay salaries with the stashed cash as a way of laundering the money.

The chairman also said that anti-graft agency’s recent raids on Bureau De Change operators in parts of the country would continue until the issuance of new naira notes.

According to Bawa, the move by the state governors to launder the stashed money through a cash payment of salaries contravenes Section 2 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act.

He stressed that any cash transaction beyond five million naira is a crime.

Bawa said; “Already, some state governors that have some of this cash stashed in various houses and the rest are now trying to pay salaries in cash in their states.

“I don’t know how they want to achieve that but we have to stop them from doing that. Well, we are working, they have not paid the salaries in cash yet but it is a very serious thing”.