Pandora Papers: CISLAC, others Urge FG to Investigate Indicted Nigerians

Yemi Akinsuyi/

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the National Chapter of Transparency International (TI) in Nigeria, and Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to activate the process of investigating every Nigerian implicated in the Pandora Papers.

The Pandora Papers is one of the biggest ever leaks of secret business ventures linked to politicians, billionaires, socialites, and other influential individuals globally. It follows the same pattern as the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers released in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

The latest document, released on October 3, 2021, exposes details of business ventures incorporated offshores as well as the financial transactions and practices of their secret owners that exploit and, in some cases, violate and undermine extant financial guidelines and policies in some countries.

Executive Director, CISLAC, Mallam Auwal Ibrahim Musa who addressed journalists on behalf of the coalition in Abuja, charged the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mallam Abubakar Malami, and all anti-corruption agencies to immediately commence actions to investigate all the people and companies indicted in the document. Musa also called on civil society organizations to urgently come together to track and document the reports and commence efforts to ensure that the exposures do not go the way of the Paradise and Panama Papers.

The coalition urged the Federal government to consider policy reforms and institutional strengthening necessary to curb the abuse of financial systems and ease the prosecution of violators. The Federal government, he said, should consider strengthening the Code of Conduct Bureau by digitizing the assets declaration processes, documentation and verification, and the prosecution of violators.

“As of now, the asset declaration administration in Nigeria is dysfunctional and a major enabler for corruption. The federal government must equally work with the National Assembly to remove all the obstacles to public access to asset declarations of every eligible public officer.

“The Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 provides for the setting up of a Beneficial Ownership (BO) register. We call on the government to fully implement this so that beneficial owners of companies in Nigeria can be identified. This will prevent the diversion of public funds through procurement corruption in the first place. The Nigerian government must “live the talk” by ensuring the beneficial ownership data is publicly accessible and must show leadership by acting on them. So far, the lack of action on financial data leaks proves the opposite,” he said.

The coalition also charged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure that financial institutions fully carry out Know Your Customer (KYC), Customer Due Diligence (CDD) as well as Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) as required by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), and other international financial compliance guidelines.

According to Musa, effective compliance with these guidelines and measures will curb the current abuse and indiscretion among politically exposed persons and their collaborators.

He urged the CBN and the anti-graft agencies, the Ministry of Justice, and the Foreign Affairs to work in synergy and engage their international counterparts to ensure that global enablers/middlemen like lawyers, notaries, accountants who help facilitate money laundering and tax evasion are blacklisted, deregistered, or held to account under the several national laws, policies, and international frameworks which Nigeria is a signatory to.

“There is enough open data available exposing PEPs, military leaders, senior public servants, and others to own lavish properties all around the world. No significant international cooperation with many key jurisdictions takes place now.

“The Federal Government should reopen the Voluntary Asset and Income Disclosure Scheme (VAIDS) and the Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS) to enable Nigerians with undisclosed (offshore) assets to declare them and pay taxes where they are liable.

“The National Assembly should ensure that it continues to play its constitutionally mandated oversight functions on the relevant government agencies to ensure that they carry out their mandate,” he said.

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