The Federal Government is putting final touches to all necessary measures to stop cash withdrawal from federal, state and local government accounts.
An officer of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Modibbo Hamman Tukur, revealed this on Tuesday at a parley with the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmud Yakubu.
Tukur said, “because of the consistent devaluation of the naira and the introduction of a new naira policy, Section 1 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act is automatically activated.”
According to a statement issued by the NFIU Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dik- ko, Tukur was of the view that most cash withdrawals from government accounts,including payments for es- tacode are often in excess of the cash withdrawal limit provided by the Money Laundering Act.
According to him, this ex- poses innocent public servants to being liable to im- prisonment. He also said the NFIU was already working on an advi sory to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, all governors and local government council chair- men to direct all public servants to open domiciliary and naira accounts ahead of the commencement of the policy, which becomes com- pulsory by law.
Tukur said governors and council chairmen would also need to organise training for market men and women on how to use the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and Point of Sale (POS) services.
In the same vein, Dikko has refuted the news doing the rounds that the NFIU would block Federal Government accounts in January.
