A group under the auspices of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has linked dearth of investigative reporting to non-indictment of anyone in the Panama and Paradise paper scam till date.
The group also said the development accounts for why corrupt officials are still in government even when they have been proven to be dubious, thereby frustrating investigations.
Auwal Musa, Executive Director, CISLAC, stated this during his overview on effects of corruption at a one-day training of journalists in monitoring and reporting money laundering cases in Nigeria.
He said though media had been instrumental in revealing massive corruption scandals within and outside the government, thereby helping to spark mass action and increasing demand for transparency in government, unfortunately, these investigations and reports had not attracted commensurate sanctions and convictions.
Recall that the famous Panama Papers were 11.5 million leaked documents that detailed financial and attorney –client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities.
The documents, some of which dated back to the 1970s, were created by and taken from Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider, Mossack Fonseca, and leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.
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The documents contain personal financial information about wealthy individuals and public officials that had previously been kept private.
While offshore business entities are legal, reporters found that some of the Mossack Fonseca shell corporations were used for illegal purposes, including fraud, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions.
The training programme also revealed that no fewer than $50 billion were laundered out of Africa in safe havens on annual basis, a situation that contributed to under-development in the continent.
Musa said: “Though the media have been instrumental in revealing massive corruption scandals in Panama and Paradise papers, which included hundreds of Nigerians from all walks of life that were hiding money in tax havens.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to witness any consequences through dismissals, investigations or let alone prosecutions, while in other countries, leading politically exposed persons had to leave offices, in Nigeria these individuals are celebrated. We have to ask ourselves, why is it so?”