EFCC launches crack down on hotels

he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday issued a two-week ultimatum to all hotels in the country to regularise their operations with the appropriate authorities or face criminal prosecution.


The EFCC said the hotels were supposed to be regulated by bodies such as the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation, saying, however, that most of them had failed to comply with the provisions of the law.


The EFCC spokesman, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said this in a statement made available to the press.


He also warned that hotel operators that failed to provide the stipulated information on their activities as required by law would face the wrath of the anti-graft agency.



Babafemi said the warning became necessary, following findings by the EFCC that many of the hotels that had failed to provide information about their operations were being used as havens for criminality, especially money laundering and cyber crime.


“Investigations by the commission reveal that over 3,000 hotels across the country are either not registered or regulated by the NTDC, or are without signboards, thus making inquiries from relevant regulatory bodies in the course of investigation a near impossibility,” he said.


He noted that inquiries sent to the NTDC on specific information about some hotels had been returned void because the body had no information on such facilities.


Babafemi said this had hampered investigation of criminal activities involving some of the hotels.


He said the EFCC operatives would begin to comb the the country for such hotels after the expiration of the two-week ultimatum.


“The commission will also like to warn all hotel operators, tour operators and others which fall under designated Non – Financial Institutions to close their doors to any form of illegal dealings or face the wrath of the law,” he said.

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