Pandora Papers: CISLAC, TI, PTCIJ seek probe of exposed persons

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the National Chapter of Transparency International (TI) in Nigeria, and Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) on Monday urged President Muhammed Buhari to take steps in investigating every person exposed and implicated in the Pandora Papers.

The Pandora Papers is one of the biggest ever corruption leaks led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and over 600 journalists from 117 countries, including journalists from Nigeria’s Premium Times.

Following the pattern of two previous leaks (i.e., the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers, which were released in 2017 and 2016, respectively), the Pandora Papers exposes systems and secrecy jurisdictions that enable and abet crime, corruption, and illicit dealings by politicians, billionaires, influential individuals, and their enablers globally.

“Since its release on October 3, Nigerians have read in awe details of financial transactions and practices of politicians and influential individuals that exploit and, in some cases, violate and undermine extant financial guidelines and policies and threaten our corporate existence and collective wellbeing.

“The Pandora Papers confirm therefore the continuing weaknesses in the Nigerian financial systems and regulatory deficiencies that have been at the root of the annual loss of $18 billion to illicit financial flows out of Nigeria, according to the latest estimate.

“Some of you will recall that the Panama Papers and the Paradise papers led to significant protests across the globe and the fall of governments, dismissal of officials, criminal investigations, and asset confiscations. They also precipitated hundreds of tax probes and criminal investigations, prosecutions, and reforms in the United States, Canada, Europe, and parts of Africa.

“Sadly, both have had minimal impact in Nigeria as the federal government led by President Buhari has failed on both occasions, to seize the opportunities to take decisive action against corruption and bring all those indicted in the two papers to account.

“The Nigerian Government has only managed to constitute a Panama Papers committee, which never triggered any action or any impact. It is to be assumed that given the large number of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) present in the Panama and other leaks, committees consisting of PEPs are unlikely to indict their own.

“The Pandora papers release is coming when Nigeria is reeling under the deleterious impact of the COVID-19 and the debt pile up that has continued to stoke serious concerns across political divides and among Nigerians and its development partners. Therefore, it is a meaningful opportunity for the Buhari administration to act decisively against corruption, aggressive tax planning, and other financial practices of politically exposed persons and their advisors and companies that threaten our country’s economic stability and corporate existence,” the coalition said.

The coalition of CISLAC, Transparency International in Nigeria, and the Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism called on President Buhari, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, and all anti-corruption agencies to immediately commence actions to investigate all the people and companies indicted in the stories and revelations of dirty financial deals so far published by the Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism.

“Furthermore, we call on civil society organizations to urgently come together to track and document the reports and commence effort to ensure the exposures does not go the way of the 2017 and 2016 Paradise and Panama Papers. We urge the Federal government to consider policy reforms and institutional strengthening necessary to curb the abuse of financial systems and ease the prosecution of violators,” they said.