Fraud: Most people giving Nigeria bad names abroad are foreigners, FG insists

…moves to check identity theft, operation of multiple accounts

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, ABUJA

The Federal Government, on Tuesday, said it was concerned that the majority of the people giving the country bad names in the diaspora are foreigners that only carry Nigerian identity.

Consequently, it said that plans are underway to harmonise the citizenship database for effective individual and corporate identity management.

The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed at the opening session of a three-day national training workshop on counter-terrorism financing, organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA.

He said the database harmonization would ensure that the identities of Nigerians are easily verified from any part of the world, saying it would be a boost to the war against money laundering and terrorism financing, both in the country and in the West African region.

According to him: “There are two things I think we must get right. Number one that we must get right is what I call individual and corporate identity management.

“The identity of everybody in Nigeria must be seen. Identity fraud must be nil. It must be impossible for one person to be able to open different accounts or for one person to have an account in this name and have insurance in another name.

“We must make sure that if you are James Kelly anywhere, you are James Kelly everywhere. We must be able to understand corporate identity, corporate companies, entities, and different people.

“It is very important. Not until we can get that, that we will be able to be ahead and be able to forecast trends. If you cannot forecast trends, if you cannot project, if you cannot be able to predict, believe me, you will always be reactive.

“The era when somebody carries a Nigerian passport with a name, that same Nigeria goes to Gambia and gets a passport with another name. He opens an account in Nigeria with a name, he opens an account in another country with another name.

“That era should be gone. That is what ECOWAS, that is what AU is meant for. Let’s call a spade a spade.

“We arrested somebody some months ago. The case is in court. The person came to Nigeria with a Nigerian passport with a name and when she wanted to leave, her British passport carried another name. Yes, that is what happened, because the database, the passport biometric database of Nigeria is not being shared with any other world.

“So, you can claim to be anybody anywhere else in the world and carry two different passports of two different countries with different names. And that’s what I tell people.

“I am convinced that the majority of the people giving Nigeria bad names in diaspora, most of them are not Nigerians, they only carry Nigerian identity and that is something we must solve. So, individual and corporate identity management solutions are very, very key.

“We must be able to harmonize that, at least at a regional level. That is the number one. Because no country can fight terrorism on its own.

“We must come together. It has gone beyond a single domain. It is now a regional thing.”

Continuing, the Interior Minister assured that Nigeria would be the first country to launch what he called the “Centralized Citizens Integrity and Document Authentication System.”

“Anything issued in Nigeria, anywhere in the world, in real time, we will harmonize the database and we will verify it everywhere in the world. We will do that. We are on the verge of completing that.

“I tell people my biggest asset. The biggest gift of my life is my citizenship of this great country and I will not allow anybody to brand me with an identity that is not mine.

“We are not fantastically corrupt. We are fantastically intelligent, brilliant, hardworking people. But in a scenario where you do not provide the opportunity for authentication in real-time, you will be subject to guesswork.

“And when your identity and your integrity are subjected to guesses, then you should know that abuse will become inevitable. So we are doing that very soon,” he added.

In her remarks, the Director of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, Mrs Hafsat Bakari, said the workshop provided a unique opportunity for analysts, investigators and prosecutors to enhance their knowledge and improve their techniques in tracing licit and illicit funds that are channelled to financing terrorism and building strong cases against the financiers of terrorism.

“Without funds and finances that enable their activities, terrorists and terrorist organisations would not be able to carry out the dastardly acts they do. Funds, supplies and other material assistance are therefore central to terrorists’ ability to operate and that is why this workshop by GIABA is critical,” she stated.

On his part, the Director-General of GIABA, Mr. Edwin W. Harris Jr., in his address, said the organization would continue to support countries in the West African region to strengthen their capacity to fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.

GIABA is a specialised institution of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, responsible for facilitating the adoption and implementation of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) strategies in West Africa.

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