Senate to publish names those responsible for dwindling value of the naira

- The Senate has accused some banks and importers of being responsible for the state of Forex that is affecting the economy negatively

- The chairman of the Senate committee on customs, Senator Hope Uzodinma, says the release of forex to fictitious importers had denied genuine importers access to forex, causing economic hardship

- Uzodinma decries that the Republic of Benin currency was stronger than that of Nigeria in spite of its might

The Senate has vowed to publish the names of importers and banks involved in a Forex fraud amounting to the tune of N30tr.

The upper chamber said those involved in the fraud were responsible for the state of Forex that is affecting the economy negatively.

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Senator Hope Uzodinma, the chairman of senate committee on customs stated this on Thursday, April 13, on the second day of meeting with representatives of all commercial banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and ministry of finance, Vanguard reports.

The chairman said the committee had given documents containing names of importers allegedly involved in the act and other details to the commercial banks to study.

He said as soon as the committee gets reactions from the banks, it will proceed with further investigations on each of the importers.

Uzodinma said: “The Senate is worried with the state of our economy and we have decided to investigate the dwindling value of our Naira as well as the state of forex that is affecting the economy negatively.

“We will publish the names of importer and banks involved in this fraudulent act.

“The purpose of giving the banks these documents is for them to go and identify the importers that were their customers and work out ways of returning the un-utilised portion of the foreign exchange allocated to them.

“We have the names of the importers, how much was given to them and other details, which are contained in the documents handed over to the banks."

NAIJ.com learnt that the lawmaker noted that the release of Forex to fictitious importers had denied genuine importers access to Forex, causing economic hardship.

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He stressed that: “Commercial banks were trusted and given dealer status, unfortunately we were not able to see the importation that was made with the forex released.

“We profiled utilisation of Forex within the period and went further to establish that letters of credit for doing business were linked to companies abroad.

“We did not stop there, we also went to Customs and there was no evidence of import duty payment, payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) and other requirements.’’

He lamented that the Republic of Benin currency was stronger than that of Nigeria in spite of its might.

The lawmaker said the committee had given the banks up to May 3, to appear before it after studying and making submissions on the documents given to them.

In another news item, NAIJ.com reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has raided the home of former Niger state governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu and his farm in Minna, Niger state.

The Nation reports that officials of the ant-graft-agency arrived at the residence located along Peter Seriki road in Tunga early in the morning on Thursday, April 13, to conduct a search.

According to some witnesses, the officials spent about two hours in the house during the search.

NAIJ.com learnt that the residence which was being searched by the EFCC was the same one Aliyu stayed all through his eight year tenure as the governor of the state.

In this video below, NAIJ.com conducts a price survey of foodstuffs in the Bariga market. Watch: