Ribadu to speak at European parliament forum on Panama Papers

A former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, will on Thursday be part of a panel to discuss the Panama Papers leak as they affect Africa.

The forum is organised by the European Parliament Inquiry Committee, PANA, following revelations published by a consortium of international media, including PREMIUM TIMES, showing secretive offshore companies used by powerful individuals and criminals to hide wealth, evade taxes and commit fraud.

The event will hold in Strasbourg France on Thursday, April 6.

The committee, which had been working since July last year had held a series of public hearings with the journalists who revealed the Panama Papers, representatives of international organisations, academics, the business society.

The Members of the Committee have now decided to hold a hearing on “The impact of the schemes revealed in the Panama Papers on developing countries”.

Information from the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, reveals that members of the PANA Committee will use the meeting to get a better understanding of the impact of money-laundering and tax evasion on developing countries.

“The Members of the Committee will hear about the experience and findings of relevant stakeholders (journalist and experts in taxation and money-laundering) in this area, with a focus on the level of cooperation between EU and African authorities, the difficulties faced by them and the deficiencies observed in the existing legal framework in this field (including, if appropriate evidence of no respect of EU law),” one of the released information said.

Mr. Ribadu will be part of a panel that will discuss Panama Papers and Africa alongside Carlos Lopez, a former UN representative, as well as Alvin Mosloma, the founding executive director of Tax Justice Network Africa.

Others are Jean Ziegler, an author from Switzerland, Will Fitzgibbon, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ, reporter focusing on the Panama Papers impact in Africa and De Pasquale, an Italian prosecutor.