The Nigerian Senate has tracked the Bill for an Act to make comprehensive provisions for an effective legal and institutional framework for the recovery and management of proceeds of crime and referred to its Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights to be worked upon.

The Lawmakers, while tracking the Bill on Monday, agreed that the absence of a civil forfeiture law in the country makes a mockery of the anti-corruption fight, but now that there are assets forfeiture provisions in the extant laws, the provisions basically will cover forfeiture after conviction.

The Proceeds of Crime Bill, 2017 (SB. 376) which also seeks to deprive a person of the proceeds of an unlawful activity and other benefits derived from an offence committed within or outside Nigeria, in a way that is more organised, coordinated, transparent will allow the country to benefit from rather than lose the value of the property obtained from these illegal activities.

The Senate said with this Bill, “We will be better equipped to deal with the proceeds of this kind of activities and make it easier for our anti-graft agencies to not only prosecute and jail economic criminals but to recover for the country the value that may have been taken and more.”

The upper chamber further maintained that the fight against corruption, money laundering, economic and financial crimes calls for global collaboration, adding that such was the reason why the Bill would provide the necessary consolidation of the existing provisions in the recovery of proceeds of assets across the law enforcement agencies.

“The Bill is part of the action plan of the government to prosecute criminal activities within and outside the nation’s border,” the Senate added.

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