The Federal Executive Council has approved a bill that seeks to create an agency that will be responsible for managing proceeds of crimes in Nigeria.
The bill is titled ‘Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill.’
After the approval by FEC, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), was directed to transmit same to the National Assembly for the purpose of passing it into law.
The virtual meeting was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari from the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja with some ministers in attendance while others participated from their offices.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Malami noted that what optained currently is that proceeds of crime are scattered with multiple government agencies.
He said after the passage of the bill and the creation of the agency, the organisation would have the sole responsibility of managing the proceeds of crimes in Nigeria.
He said, “The bill is targeted and intended to have in place legal and institutional framework. The legal componence of it is having a law while the institutional component of it is to have an agency that will be saddled with the responsibility of managing the assets that constitute proceeds of crime in Nigeria.
“What happens before now is that 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 (Department of State Services), the EFCC (The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices Commission).
“So, with that kind of arrangement which is ad hoc, there is no agency of government that is saddled with the responsibility of data generation, an agency that can give you offhand the number of landed assets, immovable assets, the amount in cash that is recovered by the Federal Government by way of interim forfeiture or final forfeiture. So, it is indeed over time a kind of arrangement that is not uniform and consistent.
“It will be a one-stop shop arrangement by which all the assets that are recovered arising from crime that are indeed vested in the Federal Government, will be in one place.”
Malami added that once there is a budget line for recovered assets directed by the President, the agency to be created would be in a position to provide information to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on demand concerning what amount is available for budget purposes, thereby establishing the desired transparency which has not been available before now.
Malami noted that the proposed agency has nothing to do with the travails of the suspended chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, who is being investigated for alleged misappropriation of recovered lots.
He explained that there have been failed attempts to present the bill to FEC in 2007, 2011 and 2019 adding, “So, to now tie it to a particular institution or particular development of 2020, I think is unfounded taking into consideration the historical antecedents relating to the bill.”
Also addressing Stste House Correspondents, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, disclosed that the council approved a new national policy on occupational safety and health titled, ‘National Policy on Occupational Safety 2020.’
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He said the new policy was aimed at ensuring that all workers were safe at their work places across the country.
The minister said the policy was formulated from the provisions of the nation’s constitution and the International Labour Organisation’s convention.
“This policy is designed to ensure safety and health of workers at work places.
“It derives from the main ground norm law of the 1999 constitution as amended, which in Section 17 (3c) prescribes that the Nigerian state shall make laws and bye-laws for preservation of the health and well-being of workers in the work places; men and women at work,” the minister stated.
