Conscience Nigeria, an NGO, has called on the Federal Ministry of Interior to establish a regulatory body to monitor activities of NGOs in the country.
The Executive Director of the NGO, Mr Tosin Adeyanju, made the call in Abuja on Sunday. According to him, over the years, there has been no proper monitoring of the activities of NGOs in Nigeria which made it easy for very few of them to engage in activities not defined by the Act establishing them.
“ The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is mandated to register NGOs but it cannot actually give account of what they are really doing after being registered.
“For instance, an NGO might register as a charity organisation, but you discover that it is into election monitoring and other activities that are not stated in its aims and objectives,'' he said.
He explained that the regulatory body should be designed to help, and not to hinder NGOs’ growth, but also to root out corruption and foster sound management discipline.
It would be recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had alleged that some NGOs were being used for money laundering and sponsorship of criminal activities.
Angela Nworgu, Head, Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering, said this in a statement issued on Sept. 5 in Abuja by the spokesman of the anti-graft agency, Mr Wilson Uwujaren.
The statement said investigation by the Financial Action Task Force indicated that money launderers, "who use NGOs to launder stolen wealth through several countries, disguise the origin of the money”. NAN
