The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) revealed it had uncovered the financial activities of a religious sect in the country, laundering money for terrorists.
Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this during a Public engagement on youth, religion, and the fight against corruption, as well as the launch of Inter-Faith Manual and Fraud Risk Assessment Project for ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal government, at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.
The event, organised by the EFCC, is about multi-dimensional stakeholders’ involvement in the fight against economic and financial crimes.
Olukoyede also revealed that another religious body was found to be protecting a money launderer after some money suspected to have been laundered was traced to the organisation’s bank account.
According to him, the Commission was investigating a N13bn fraud case when it discovered that N7bn of the N13bn was linked to a religious body’s bank account.
However, while the Commission was still investigating the money trail, the religious organisation reportedly went on to procure a restraining order to prevent further probes.
“A religious sect in this country had been found to be laundering money for terrorists. We were able to trace some laundered money to a religious organisation, and 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 said.
The EFCC boss assured that the agency will not give up on the investigation, as it is appealing the restraining order to recover the stolen funds.