Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government has approved the Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, presented the memo at 15th virtual Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
He told State House Correspondents that the bill, which will be forwarded to National Assembly for approval, is targeted and intended to have in place a legal and institutional framework. He further explained that previous proceeds of crime were scattered all over in different and multiple agencies.
“It is in essence a bill that is targeted and intended to have in place a legal and institutional framework. The legal component of it is having a law. And the institutional component of it is to have an agency that will be saddled with the responsibility of managing the assets that constitute the proceeds of crime in Nigeria. What happens before now is the proceeds of crime are scattered all over, and mostly in the hands of different and multiple agencies of government inclusive of the police, the DSS, EFCC, and ICPC. So, with that kind of arrangement which is adhoc, there is no agency of government that is saddled with the responsibility of data generation, an agency that can give you offhad the number of landed assets , number of immovable assets , the amount in cash that are recovered by the federal government by way of interim forfeiture overweigh of a final forfeiture. So, it is indeed overtime a kind of arrangement that is not uniform and consistent.”
The AGF added that the new law seeks to move the fight against corruption to the next level.
“Next level of transparency, next level of accountability in essence, will have in place an agency of government that is exclusively responsible for anything proceeds of crime. A one-stop shop arrangement by which all the assets that are recovered arising from crimes that are indeed vested in the Federal Government, you have a one-stop arrangement where you can have an information. As it is for example the federal ministry of Justice is only in a position to account and giving comprehensive account of what recoveries were made by the ministry.”