The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has extended its clampdown on Bureau De Change (BDC) operators to Lagos, Abuja, and Kano, as it arrested no less than 87 forex dealers.
In continuation of its onslaught against BDC operators over the current dollar crisis in Nigeria, operatives of the anti-graft agency on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, stormed several forex trading hubs in the aforementioned states, ransacking their vaults for the stash of dollars and naira.
The EFCC operatives later arrested no fewer than 25 legal and illegal forex dealers in addition to the 40 people arrested on Tuesday, November 1, during a raid of the Zone 4 Wuse offices of the Association of Bureau de Change Operators (ABCON), bringing the number of arrests in the Federal Capital Territory to 65.
During the operation, the EFCC personnel were said to have seized the phones of those that were arrested.
In a similar development, the operatives of the anti-graft agency also nabbed about 14 forex dealers in Lagos on Wednesday while eight others were picked up at the famous Bureau de Change market located at Wapa in the Kano metropolis.
The EFCC detectives, in Lagos, swooped on forex dealers on Broad Street in Lagos Island as well as some BDC outlets in other parts of the state.
According to some forex traders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the EFCC operatives came in two buses.
It was later gathered that about 14 BDC operators were arrested in Lagos.
Though no reason had been given for the raids, the EFCC operation, BizWatch Nigeria understands that the clampdown was targeted at tracking illicit funds from terrorists, bandits, and politicians who might want to convert their stash in a desperate move to beat the redesign of the naira announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
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