House of Representatives is to probe the status of funds seized or recovered by the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unity ( NFIU) and other agencies and lodged in financial institutions.
To this effect, it has constituted an Ad-hoc Committee to ascertain who authorised the seizures, who kept the seized funds and for what duration, and demand for the statement of account for a period covering 10 years.
The Ad-hoc Committee was also mandated to suggest measures to curb revenue losses and report back within four weeks for further legislative actions.
This is sequel to the adoption of a motion by Dachung Bagos, on “need to identify and recover public funds seized, forfeited and abandoned in financial institutions and government agencies to improve the current economic challenges in Nigeria.”
Bagos, in his motion noted that the intention of the “Proceeds of Crime Act” was to provide an effective legal and institutional framework for the recovery and management of the proceeds of crime, amongst others.
He explained that the Act stipulates that all recovered monies, as well as proceeds from the sale of confiscated assets, shall be paid into the CBN as confiscated and forfeited properties account for the federation.
He said despite having at least 12 institutions and agencies responsible for tackling illicit financial flow (IFF) and related crimes, Nigeria continues to be menaced by weak regulatory structures and complicity of other financial secrecy, among others.
He said: “All recovered funds from the investigation of the Federal Government Agencies like the EFCC the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), funds recovered through whistle blowing, all funds seized by CBN, funds left by deceased bank customers, funds trapped in banks, forfeiture, exhibits, proceed of frauds terrorism, drugs, etc, are stacked in places not known and are not accounted for to the public.
“While the National Assembly has made considerable efforts by making enactments such as the Proceeds of Crime Act which has introduced some laudable provisions to realign the fight against corruption and financial crimes with International best practices, the lack of enforcement has rendered these efforts futile.”