The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has promised to investigate government officials and prominent Nigerians who are named as having secret foreign accounts or foreign firms that allow them to escape paying tax as contained in PanamaPapers.

The Director of Information at the EFCC, Mr. Osita Nwaja, gave the assurance while addressing protesters, who had stormed the Abuja head office of the anti-graft agency to demand the probe of all Nigerians accused of operating offshore accounts in notorious tax havens.

Nwaja said, “These papers (Panama Papers) did not emanate from Nigeria but they touch the lives of the people of Nigeria and corruption as well as money laundering has gone beyond national borders as we are seeing from these papers.

“The EFCC is not just a Nigerian organization. The work that we do goes beyond national borders. So, this request will be looked into along with other requests by other well-meaning Nigerians along the already charted course of Mr. President, which is zero tolerance for corruption, zero tolerance for impunity, zero tolerance for the abuse of public office and continued subjugation of the Nigerian people.”

The leak of the Panama Papers details how political leaders and the super rich conduct business behind a veil of secrecy.

Credit: Punch