EFCC raids Kano’s forex market, arrests BDC operators

A raid carried out by operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at Wapa forex market in Kano, has led to the arrest of at least 8 Bureau de Change (BDC) operators.

 Daily Trust reported that operatives of the Kano command of the anti-graft agency stormed the forex market on Tuesday evening with about eight vehicles and heavily armed personnel.

Speaking to the publication, one of the marketers said before the operatives of the EFCC arrived the market late Tuesday, some of his colleagues had partially closed their shops after hearing that some of their colleagues were arrested in Abuja.

 Following the partial shutdown, many of them quickly shut down and ran out of the market when the operatives stormed the market.

 Many of them have also decided to stay off the market for a while until things normalize, as this is not the first time EFCC was raiding the market.

 The marketer said; 

 “Every time they raid this market, the price of dollar will go up. For instance, today (Wednesday) a dollar is N845 as against N835 it was being sold yesterday (Tuesday) before the EFCC raided us.

“In fact, last week we were selling it at N750 but before the end of the week, it went up to N780. Problem is that it is because the government is not releasing dollars. The hike is not our fault. We buy expensive, so we have to sell it in a way to make a little profit.” 

 A senior staff of the anti-graft agency who confirmed the raid, said it was conducted as part of the agency’s efforts to support the federal government to arrest the recent hike of forex.

He also said that they've been closely observing the roles of the BDC operators in the unfortunate hike and that money launderers have been using the BDC to obtain forex on black market to avoid losing their ill-gotten funds in Naira to the newly announced redesign of Naira notes.

 The senior staff added that eight suspects were arrested for forex racketeering and engaging into forex without legitimate license. The suspects are now cooling off in the Kano command where investigation is currently ongoing after which the necessary action would be taken.