The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN) has blamed the fall in the value of the Naira on orchestrated criminal conspiracies and manipulation by “unscrupulous elements hiding under the cloak of market forces”.
Malami who made the insinuation while addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, said certain disturbing developments confirmed initial suspicion of the government that the currency was being deliberately undermined by those he branded “economic terrorists”.
His words: “As a responsible government, we cannot allow such a situation anchored on unlawful alliances and criminal enterprise to continue unchecked, when it is apparent that its primary objective is to sabotage the economic agenda of the present administration.”
“We are witnessing manipulative and coordinated speculative activities in the foreign exchange market leading to the current wide differential between the official rate at the Central Bank of Nigeria and the parallel market rate, respectively, in a manner that defies rational economic analysis.
“These nefarious speculative activities exert further pressure on the Naira exchange rate and have created a very wide artificial differential between the aforesaid two rates which are now being exploited by unscrupulous individuals and institutions.
“Accordingly, the differential has given rise to sharp practices and rent seeking activities by these entities that run contrary to various provisions of the laws governing the conduct of the foreign exchange market and our anti-money laundering regime.
“Let me emphasize that the Federal Government will pursue this initiative with all the resources at its disposal as the activities of this group, in our view, amounts to acts of economic terrorism against the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Our response will therefore be decisive, robust and sustained in order to save our national economy. Pursuant to the outcome of the investigations, all persons indicted will be brought to book and will face prosecution in due course.
“While there have been an outcry for the government to reject calls for devaluation of the currency, there is no doubt the government has also been assailed by calls from several quarters to adopt the theoretical policy response of devaluating the Naira, in order to absorb the demand pressure of the currency.”
Malami went on to reiterate the stance of President Muhamadu Buhari that the Naira will not be devalued as
“it is counter-productive and has the potential to cause even more dislocations in the economy, particularly against the backdrop of our current status as a largely import-dependent economy. In addition, government has emphatically restated its priority responses which will be geared towards moves to diversify the economy, promote greater accountability within the system through the blocking of all revenue loopholes, undertake a robust asset-recovery process in Nigeria and overseas and prosecute all treasury looters in accordance with the law.”
