Senate moves to re-amend Proceeds of Crime Bill 2022
The Senate, on Tuesday, moved to re-amend the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Bill, 2022, passed by the chamber on March 9, 2022, last week.
The decision to re-amend the bill followed the consideration of a motion for re-commital sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North).
In his presentation, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, relied on Orders 1(b) and 52(6) of the Senate Standing Orders 2022 (as amended) to move for the amendment of the bill.
He explained that the re-amendment of the bill became imperative in view of the amendment that was made to Clause 74 which placed the Burden of proof on the investigating Agencies but not on the Defendant as recommended by the Joint Committee in its report. According to him, the amendment runs contrary to the provision of Article 12(7) of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC).
Article 12(7) of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime provides that, “States Parties may consider the possibility of requiring that an offender demonstrate the lawful origin of alleged proceeds of crime or other property liable to confiscation.”
On the need to amend the Clause 74 of the bill, Abdullahi said, “the implication of the amendment is that civil forfeitures would be a thing of the past in Nigeria as there would not be final forfeitures without a conviction.
“Implying that all property seized are included in the clause, even those that may be incidental to an arrest and may contain evidence needed for investigation of the crime.”
“For example, phones, computers, documents, photographs etc recovered from suspected kidnappers, drug barons, human and child traffickers, cyber criminals, terrorists and the like would also wait for convictions before they can be seized, even in situations where the suspects are at large and the properties can be recovered for the benefit of the victim and Nigerians where applicable.
“Another example of a conundrum, is the “Ikoyi Loot” case, where no one has yet come to claim ownership of the funds and since there are no suspects …
