Barristers & Solicitors
Falana to EFCC: prosecute any lawyer found complicit in money laundering

Activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has advised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute any lawyer involved in acts of money laundering.

Falana gave the advice while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in reaction to a recent statement by EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa.

Bawa had vowed to beam the searchlight on perpetrators of financial crimes, including legal practitioners.

NAN recalls that the EFCC boss spoke in Lagos at a one-day workshop on financial crimes reporting organised for journalists by the commission.

But reacting, Falana said such weighty allegations must be backed by credible evidences.

“As a senior lawyer, I deal with evidence. If the EFCC alleges that lawyers are involved in money laundering, with profound respect, it should take such lawyer to court.

“This is because in other parts of the world, lawyers and other professionals are called gatekeepers and the law deals with them severely. The law is the same in Nigeria.

“So, if the EFCC chairman has his evidence (and I know he has his evidence), then his duty is to charge such lawyers before the court so that the menace of money laundering can be seriously tackled.

“I am not talking of lawyers alone. The usual gatekeepers are lawyers, accountants, bankers and estate agents.”

“I am not unaware that the EFCC has had cause to charge gatekeepers, including lawyers, to court for money laundering.

“Some are standing trial, some have been tried. So, where there is evidence linking lawyers with money laundering, such lawyer should be charged before the court,” he said.

Falana stressed that legal practitioners, as gatekeepers, must distant themselves from such financial crimes and live up to the tenet of the offices they occupy.

THE NATION