Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) yesterday suspended Amazon Bureau De Change (BDC). This followed the arrest of Amazon BDC Manager, Nwokenta Emmanuel, and five other persons, by the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for swallowing $156,000 intended for export to Brazil.
The Executive Council of ABCON also suspended directors and workers of the company pending the outcome of the investigations by the its Disciplinary and Investigative Committee, the NDLEA, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
ABCON President, Aminu Gwadabe who announced the suspension said the group is shocked and highly embarrassed by the development and the involvement of a BDC operator in the act.
”While this is not to pre-empt the outcome of these investigations, the suspension is to serve as strong warning to all ABCON members that any case of illegality and unethical conduct will be severely dealt with by the Association. We call on all BDC operators not to allow anyone to use their services or license for money laundering or any act of illegality and criminality,” Gwadabe said.
He said ABCON has a zero tolerance for non-compliance with regulatory requirement and for unethical conduct amongst its members.
“It for this purpose that the association created the office of Compliance Officer in its National Secretariat and in all its zonal offices and also provided official vehicles for the compliance officers to regularly pay inspection visits to BDCs under their jurisdictions”.