By Temitope Ponle
Abuja – The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called on ECOWAS member states to strengthen institutional capacities to urgently tackle illicit money transactions and terror related funding.
Mr Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), President, NBA, made the call on Friday in Abuja at a ceremony to mark the 2016/2017 Legal Year of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (ECOWAS Court).
Mahmoud, who was represented by Mr Olumuyiwa Akinboro (SAN), said strengthening the institutions would enhance collaboration and reduce money laundering related crimes within the sub-region.
“The region needs to build its institutional capacity to develop enhanced inter-agency collaboration in border surveillance, to prevent cross border small and light arms proliferation.
“It would identify suspicious transactions and terror related funding and reduce to the barest minimum, cash based transactions as terrorist activities thrive in informal settings,” he said.
He also called on the judiciary to be adequately equipped to readily tackle the challenges posed by acts of money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Without financing, terrorism cannot thrive and survive; we need to sharpen our understanding of applicable laws on combating terrorism, improve our institutional capacity and infrastructures to meet the challenges ahead, ‘’ he said.
Mrs Khadija Ibrahim, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, called on the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) to enhance its sensitisation efforts.
Ibrahim said both the ECOWAS Court and GIABA needed to redouble their efforts at sensitising relevant stakeholders to checking illicit financial activities in the sub-region.
“If the war against terrorism financing is to be won, member states must be encouraged and supported to enact laws that will regulate money laundering.
“Development partners are also requested to further assist ECOWAS acquire proper training for our anti-graft agencies in order to enable them combat money laundering and terrorism financing effectively.”
The minister assured of the Federal Government’s continued support to ECOWAS in the fight against financial crimes.
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