Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that the EFCC traced the sum of N7 billion, suspected to be proceeds of money laundering, to a religious organisation.
He made the revelation at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, during a one-day dialogue on “Youth, Religion, and the Fight against Corruption” on Wednesday.
The EFCC chairman also said that the commission discovered another religious group that has been laundering money for terrorists, though he did not reveal their identities.
The Punch reports that a source in the anti-graft agency privy to the case confirmed that the N7bn was deposited into the account of a church.
Olukayode said some of the religious organisations, institutions, sects, and bodies in the country had been found to be aiding and abetting fraudsters and terrorists.
According to him, it was in the course of investigating a N13bn fraud that the anti-graft agency discovered the laundered N7bn in the bank account of a religious organisation.
The EFCC chairman stated that a restraining court order barred them from proceeding, but he vowed that the anti-graft agency would recover the money through the court as the order has been appealed.
Olukoyede said; “We were investigating a N13bn money laundering case when we discovered that N7bn of the N13bn was linked to a religious organisation’s bank account.
“When we approached the religious organisation about it and we were carrying out our investigation, we got a restraining order stopping us from carrying out our investigation.”
He added; “No one will be spared, we’ll probe everyone who is suspected to be committing financial crimes, and these includes members of the executive, legislative, and judiciary arms of government”.
