President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign gained a boost on Wednesday as members of the House of Representatives expressed overwhelming support for the bill which seeks to impose 20 years jail term on any public officers convicted of corruption while in office.
The four consolidated bills which scaled through second reading on the floor of the House, seeks to further empower the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by establishing an economic and financial crimes court and provide for quick recovery procedures for stolen assets.
According to the Bassey Ewa, sponsor of one of the consolidated bills, similar courts exist in other jurisdictions including Germany, Republic of Cameroon, Egypt, India and Ghana.
“The economic and financial crimes court shall have and exercise jurisdiction to the exclusion of any other Court or Tribunal on economic and financial crimes matters.
“The economic and financial crimes court shall within 180 days dispense with any matter that is properly brought before it. Appeals emanating from this court shall only go to the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal shall within 90 days dispense with any matter brought before it from the judgement of the economic and financial crimes court,” Ewa said.
As specified in the bill, corruption offences include: “those bribery of National public officials, bribery of foreign public officials and officials of public international organizations; embezzlement, misappropriation or other diversion of property by a public official; trading in influence; abuse of functions; illicit enrichment; bribery in the private sector; embezzlement of property in the private sector and laundering of proceeds of crime.”
In discharging its functions, the economic and financial Court as encapsulated in the bill, is also expected to handle cases of bribery by legal persons and bribery in the private sector.
Meanwhile, any company found guilty of offenses under the Act, stand to be blacklisted for 50 years from doing business in Nigeria and have its asset and finances frozen.
The lawmaker who expressed regrets over the effects of corruption on the social infrastructure and public I and other spheres of the society, stressed the need to reposition the EFCC for effective service delivery.
“Amend Section 18 of the Act that deals with penalties to increase the term of sentence to be not less than 20 years imprisonment (from the present provision of not less than two years and not exceeding three years and establish a plea bargain system whereby if the accused decides to plea-bargain by refunding the looted funds by him, his sentence shall not be less two years,” Ewa added.
The proposed bill also seeks for the amendment of section 12 of the EFCC principal Act by providing for the appointment of a retired assistant Inspector-General of Police or its equivalent in the Nigerian Army that will head to Financial Investigative Unit (FIU).
Meanwhile the Financial Investigative Unit (FIU) is empowered to “have access to all accounts and investigate any account” without complying with the Evidence Act, “provided that the investigation emanates from the financial investigative unit.”
The FIU can also access unconditionally the bank accounts of individuals, public or politically exposed persons working or had worked in any strategic position exposed to public funds; monitor cash transactions of all accounts in Nigeria to determine inflow and outflow daily.”
Likewise, the bill seeks for the amendment of section 13 of the principal Act, by empowering the Asset Confiscation and Recovery Unit.
In his contribution, Kayode Oladele, chairman House committee on Financial Crimes, stressed the need to consolidate all the extant laws on financial crime.
“There is an existing bill that deals with special courts for corrupt people that needed to be further consolidated with this one.
“There’s need for us to bring all the special crimes such as cybercrime, terrorism, financial crimes together into one so that the special court can be fully operational,” he stated.
Lending his support for the passage of the bill, Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP-Delta) who described the proposed amendments as ‘revolutionary’, called for the amendment of the constitution with the view to give it additional powers.
In his submission, Igariwey Enwo (PDP-Ebonyi) however cautioned that there’s need to be mindful of how these powers are being given out.
“Mine is only a voice of caution because it is easy to give out powers but very difficult to take it back as this special court may have to serve as subordinate court to the state high courts,” he stated.
On his part, Tajudeen Yusuf (PDP-Kogi) explained that “the amendment is designed to democratise and is intended to help us combat financial crimes but 0.1 percent of Federal Government IGR is really huge.”
While ruling, Speaker Yakubu Dogara referred the bill to the House Committee on Financial Crimes for further legislative action.
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