With the passage of Proceeds of crime bill by the Senate just recently, the Human & Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has commended the Red Chamber for the courage and asked the House of Representatives to do the same during concurrence.

HEDA's Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, who reacted on this development, called on Nigerians to give every necessary support to the National Assembly (NASS) in this regard, saying, if signed into law, the benefits would be unprecedented.

According to Suraju, “It’s high time Nigeria stopped losing billions of Naira by the hands of few Nigerians particularly the Politically Exposed Persons who are bent at crippling the economy to nothingness.

“The amount of money stolen and banked in different foreign banks and properties in different parts of the world illegally acquired by some Nigerians since independence till date, are more than enough to not only turn Nigeria into a cynosure but envy of the world.

“Today, what do we have? Apart from suffering of resource curses, we are the capital poverty of the world, the sixth (6) most miserable people on earth. Nigerians are not expected to live anywhere below average. But due to the diabolic attitude of some persons, Nigerians now attract sympathy, a laughing stock, and the political leaders are doing just little to redeem the image of the giant of Africa.”

The statement added that HEDA Resource Centre expects the House of Representatives to do exactly as the Senate without hesitation and transmit same to the president for assent.

It was learnt that the bill, when it becomes law, would expand the mandates of existing statutory institutions to manage proceeds of crime, rather than creating a new body to carry out such functions.

More so, it would facilitate the establishment of departments in relevant organisations to manage forfeited assets as well as provide for an effective legal framework for the recovery of proceeds of crime.

It would also strengthen the criminal confiscation procedure by ensuring that the total benefit from a person’s criminal activity is recovered, among others, this was according to the chairman – Joint Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes; and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters. Suleiman Kwari (APC-Kaduna).

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