President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has approved the establishment of a new anti-corruption agency.
The new agency approved by the Federal Executive Council will be saddled with proper coordination of all recovered looted assets.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami disclosed this to State House correspondents after the FEC meeting on Wednesday.
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He said the new agency, known as the ‘Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency’, will oversee the responsibility of managing the assets that constitute the proceeds of crime in Nigeria.
The Minister said the FEC has approved transmission of a bill, titled, “Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill,” to the National Assembly.
He said, “The Federal Ministry of Justice presented to Council a memo (on Wednesday).
“The memo is about a Bill which seeks the approval of the Council to transmit to the National Assembly for passage.
“It is the Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill.
“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 (Department of State Service), EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), and ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences 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 off-hand 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 over time a kind of arrangement that is not uniform and consistent.
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“If you have a budget item for recovered assets, this agency will now be in a position to provide information to the federal ministry of finance, budget and National Planning on-demand as to what amount is there available for budget purposes, thereby establishing the desired transparency, the desired accountability which has not been available before now,” the AGF stated.
Recall that Ibrahim Magu, the suspended Acting Chairman of the EFCC, had urged the Justice Ayo Salami-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry investigating him to summon Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF.
Magu explained that Malami should come before the panel so his lawyers can cross-examine him on the credibility of the allegations he made.
The suspended EFCC boss sought permission to subpoena Malami to appear before the panel.
In response, however, Malami had said he will gladly before the Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential panel if he is summoned.
Magu’s activities as the acting Chairman of the EFCC from 2015 to 2020, is under investigation.
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