The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has warned politicians and senior government officials to stop mounting illegal pressure and inordinate requests for information from the agency.
The agency issued this warning Wednesday morning, titled “Public notice and advisory to politicians and senior government officials,” and signed by Ahmed Dikko, Chief Media Analyst of the agency.
“We are forced to react to attempts to introduce politics, illegal pressure on and inordinate requests for information from the NFIU,” the advisory said.
The agency said: “We had to appropriately enlighten all calibre of officers in this category to know that Intelligence Institutions of government are generally apolitcal, operating within fixed and tailored mandate.
“The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit is also an agency created at the heart of global best practice to support crime analysis and Intelligence building locally and internationally.”
The NFIU said its “laws and standards permit us to share information with law enforcement, regulatory, defence and security and corresponding agencies in over 170 countries who are also co owners and co controllers of intelligence and compliance processes at all FIUs.”
It therefore warned that “we do not release information for administrative, civil and business reasons or requests.
“Equally we will always respond to any attempt or an inkling of it to bring or introduce or incline local and international politics to our operations.”
The agency said it has severally warned its staff to refrain from entertaining such illegal request from politicians and top government officials.
“So even for our staff there are repeated warnings. Influence peddling or mediocrity can substitute professional conduct or personal character. Any officer, whose conducts do not meet FIU best practices will always be responded to within the law,” the statement said.
The NFIU is the central national agency responsible for the receipt of disclosures from reporting organisations, the analysist of these disclosures and the production of intelligence for dissemination to competent authorities.
It is also the central coordinating body for the Nigeria’s Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and Counter-Proliferation Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) framework.
