The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, revealed on Wednesday how a powerful religious sect in the country secured a court order to stop its men from probing the N7 billion linked to some terrorists.
The commission was investigating a princely sum of N13 billion fraud when it discovered that N7 billion of the cash was linked to a religious body’s account.
The EFCC chairman made the disclosure at a one-day sensitization event in Abuja on the theme “Youth, Religion and the Fight Against Corruption” held at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
The chairman said that a different 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.
Although Olukoyede did not name the sect and the terrorists group involved in the cases, he nevertheless said that religious organisations, institutions, sects, and bodies had been engaging in money laundering.
“A religious sect in this country had been found to be laundering money for terrorists,” Olukoyede said without naming those involved and when the crime took place.”
“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,” the chairman lamented