By Kehinde Osasona
The Rule of Law Development Foundation has described the scourge of money laundering and terrorism-funding as very debilitating and destructive, and requires close attention to completely curb it.
Resource persons said this during the session at the 2024 edition of the 6th Annual Criminal Law Review Conference (ACLRC) organised by the foundation on Tuesday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Joseph Daudu (SAN), former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), is the coordinator of the foundation.
Speaking on the topic `Criminalization of lawyer/client privileged communications under Section 11 (4) of the money laundering Act, one of the panelists, Arome Abu argued that the case was already settled in ABU vs CBN.
Abu, who described the act as so extraneous, added that the court later agreed with them.
Lawyers, according to him, are prone to becoming channels through which a high risk class and politically exposed person can launder money.
He, however, added that with NBA regulations and rules made for law practice, lawyers as gatekeepers will always overcome such challenges.
In his own contribution, another panelist and a prosecutor with the EFCC, Sylvannus Tahir commended the organisers for coming up with such a timely progamme.
He noted that in the past, businessmen, accountants, car dealers and other such professionals have all been used to launder money.
Tahir, who decried laundering and terrorism-financing has affected foreign direct investment, addind that the birth of money laundering Act 2011 was apt and was capable of preventing the country’s reputation from being damaged.
Monday Adjeh of the NBA Bwari branch while giving his opinion, differed, saying the International Convention merely complements the nations laws, insisting that they cannot take the place of the country’s constitution.
“Our profession should enjoy statutory immunity as proclaimed by the rules and in addressing the challenges, the due process of law must be followed.
“We cannot change the law because we are in a hurry to change a course. We must act within the purview of the rule of law hence, some efforts will yield no fruit,”Adjeh added.
NAN also reports that Justice M.A.R Oredola chaired the event, while Emmanuel Ukala, SAN was the lead presenter.