Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, was on Friday raided by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations that some Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators were mopping up foreign currencies.
Wuse Zone 4 is the hub of many BDC operators in Abuja.
An EFCC official confirmed the raid on Friday, even as he refused to give further information on the invasion.
The invasion, reports revealed, was a covert operation to “dislodge currency speculators who are alleged to be massively mopping up available foreign currencies”.
A source further disclosed that the raid was a result of weeks of surveillance in which agents of the EFCC had been monitoring the activities of most of the BDC operators in the axis.
He said the agency was working on intelligence that some forces with massive naira inflow had mobilised resources and were busy buying up available foreign currencies, especially US Dollar, to either hoard or smuggle the same out of Nigeria.
In the last few weeks, the Naira had experienced further devaluation, dropping from about N580 to N707 per Dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market.
Some street traders said on Wednesday that the free fall resulted from the lingering foreign exchange (FX) supply constraints.
Last week, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), warned people, mostly politicians, who use Naira to buy Dollars for campaigns.
Said Emefiele: “We monitor liquidity in the system, and as we see that there’s excess liquidity, we will continue to use discretionary powers to move those liquids from the vault of the banks so that they do not get involved or in speculative activities with people who want to speculate with the currency”.
