ICPC: Reps support return of recovered funds to owners

…to conduct audit of assets seized by EFCC

The bill which seeks to empower the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to return all the recovered looted funds and property to original owners scaled through second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The bill which enjoyed overwhelming support of other lawmakers, as sponsored by Edward Pwajok (PDP-Plateau) seeks to amend ICPC’s Act, Cap. 131 LFN, 2004 and enhance and strengthen ICPC’s efficiency, provide for forfeiture to be made to the original sources of the crimes and for other related matters.

Pwajok who led the debate, explained that the proposed amendment seeks to ensure that looted money recovered from convicted corrupt public officials are returned to the source.

The lawmaker also emphasised the need to ensure that recovered looted funds are used for the purpose for which it was allocated.

In his remarks, Mark Gbillah, Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) who stressed the need to clarify the initial purpose for which looted funds were allocated, expressed optimism that the clarification would take care of all ambiguity when looted funds are recovered.

While ruling on the bill, Speaker Yakubu Dogara referred the bill to the House Committee on Anti-Corruption for further legislative actions.

In a related development, the House unveiled plans to audit all the seized movable and immovable assets/properties under the custody of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of the motion sponsored by Babajimi Benson (APC-Lagos) who frowned at the decadence of most of the movable assets in various dump sites.

He observed that section 20(1) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004, provides that a person convicted of an offence shall forfeit to Federal Government all the assets and properties which may or are the subject of interim order of the Court.

“Section 26 of the Act provides that the Commission may seize any property subject to forfeiture after an attachment of such property. Acting under these provisions, the EFCC since its establishment in 2003 has seized several movable and immovable properties and assets under interim orders of Courts in order to preserve the properties/assets and prevent them from being disposed of, by the suspects while cases were being investigated or tried.

“The EFCC maintains dump sites in various parts of the country where it keeps the movable assets while movable assets are sealed off by the Commission. The House is further aware that several of these assets have been there for several years while some are already at various stages of decay and convinced of the need to avoid this needless waste of recovered properties which would otherwise have yielded some much revenues to the national treasury,” he observed.

While ruling, Speaker Yakubu Dogara mandated the House Committee on Financial Crimes to carry out an audit of forfeited asset seized by the Commission and report back within six weeks for further legislative action.