The Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) has urged the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the alleged illegal repatriation of export revenue by communication giant company, MTN, and her collaborators.

In a petition forwarded to the EFCC and signed by CSNAC’s chairman, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju, the Network said the anti-graft commission should cause an investigation into the matter with a view to enforcing the return of the funds illegally repatriated to the Federal Government of Nigeria as the Foreign Exchange Manual stipulates.

The petition reads in part: “Our network was pleased to read on the pages of newspapers the action of the Central Bank of Nigeria with sanctions imposed on the company (MTN) and banks allegedly for unlawful operations and violation of our financial system.

“The sanction, according to reports, was as a result of forensic analysis of all the available certificates of capital importation (CCIs) and foreign exchange documentations for remittances and (or) repatriation of dividends to offshore corporate shareholders of MTN Communication Nigeria Ltd, with a view to tracing and recovering illegal remittances.

“Some experts, financial analysts and lawyers have analysed a draft of the Investigation Report on the Alleged Depletion of Nigeria External Reserves by MTN, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank in collaboration with CBN Officials and allegedly found, from their analysis, that the underlisted ten (10) individuals and corporate entities were implicated in the forgery and/or production of false CCIs to the Central Bank of Nigeria and the foreign exchange market contrary to Section 29 (1)(d) of the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous) Provisions Act Cap. F34 LFN, 2004 and punishable under sections 29(2) (b), (4) and 31.

“These corporate entities are:

“Standard Chartered Nigeria Limited;

“Citibank Nigeria Limited;

“Stanbic-IBTC Ltd

“MTN Communications Nigeria Limited.”

CSNAC gave further breakdown in the petition as follows: ‘The particulars of alleged 2 breaches by Standard Chartered Bank (SCBL), Citibank Nigeria Limited (CNL), and Stanbic IBTC Ltd (SIL) are as follows:

Particulars of alleged SCBL’s Breach:

“SCBL issued and (or) reissued a total of 110 CCIs to MTN from 2001 to 2015. 79 CCIs out of the 110 CCIs, breached the above statutory provisions and were thus irregularly issued. SCBL used and (or) caused to be used 57 out of the 79 CCIs irregularly issued to MTN to remit a total of $10,889,534,833 (USD) to MTN’s offshore corporate shareholders. Out of this total sum, SIL used 16 irregular CCIs to remit the sum of $936,017,236.89 (USD) to eight (8) MTN offshore corporate shareholders.

“Diamond Bank Plc used 9 irregular CCIs to remit the total sum of $336, 426,858.26 to nine (9) MTN offshore corporate shareholders.

SCBL indemnified SIL and Diamond Plc for losses and (or) liability that may arise from the use of these CCIs.

“SCBL conduct is contravention 6 contained in the Foreign Exchange Manual, namely that the foreign exchange in the sum of $10, 889, 534, 833.00 (USD) sold to and (or) sourced from the market by SCBL, SIL and Diamond Bank Plc and remitted to MTN’s offshore corporate shareholders, was used for non-eligible purposes.”

CSNAC requested, “respectfully, that your Commission should cause an investigation into this matter with a view to enforcing the return of the funds illegally repatriated to the Federal Government of Nigeria as the Foreign Exchange Manual stipulates and prosecuting the persons and institutions accordingly under existing laws.”

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