Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are to foster a working partnership in training and sensitisation of its members to enhance their capacity in dealing with the menace of money laundering and terrorism financing in Nigeria.
The idea of a partnership between the two bodies was brokered when the president of the NBA, Mr Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau and some members of his team paid a courtesy visit to the chairman of the ICPC, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
ICPC spokesperson Demola Bakare, in a statement, said the NBA president stated that the purpose of his visit was to inform the ICPC boss and his management team of what the NBA had done and is still doing that was directly connected to the commission’s mandate.
The visit, he said, was also to seek the commission’s support in training and sensitisation of its members on implementing the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing as contained in the rules of professional conduct of the association.
He said, “When we came on board, we decided that we must demonstrate good faith in the fight against corruption, and not just pay lip service. So, we took the anti-money laundering guidelines and also the guidelines on counter-terrorism financing and made them part of the rules of professional conduct of the NBA. With the help of the former attorney-general of the federation, it was issued at the general council of the Bar, and it became part of the rules of professional conduct of the lawyers”.
Maikyau further revealed that that singular action implied that “every legal practitioner now, by the rules that guide their professional conduct, is obligated to satisfy the requirements in the rules of professional conduct in dealing with their clients on the risk assessment basis”.
In his response, the ICPC chairman thanked the NBA president and his team for finding time to visit the commission, stating that the two bodies had enjoyed a close relationship.
The ICPC boss noted that the commission respects the NBA because they share similar mandates and that members of the association were among the commission’s staff, including all its past chairmen and himself.
Aliyu applauded Mr. Maikyau for his doggedness in pushing for the inclusion of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing guidelines into the NBA’s rules of professional conduct.
According to him, this was a major step that could help the anti-graft agencies tackle money laundering and terrorism financing in the country.
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