The House Representatives has demanded for the statement of account for a period covering 10 years of all funds trapped in other banks and funds recovered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and other agencies.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion titled, ”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”.
Moving the motion at the plenary on Thursday, Hon. Dachung Bagos said the Proceeds of Crime Act was enacted to provide for an effective legal and institutional framework for the recovery and management of the proceeds of crime, strengthen criminal confiscation procedure, and collaborate among the relevant organizations in tracing properties reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
He said under Section 69 states 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.
The lawmaker noted that CBN grants permission to Money Transfer Service Operations (MTSO) for both inbound and outbound transfers and that sometimes monies are trapped in the coffers of the CBN and other financial institutions.
Bagos stressed that 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 expressed concern that all recovered Funds from the investigation of the federal government agencies like EFCC, 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, among others, are stacked in places not known and are not accounted for to the public.
The lawmaker noted that 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.
The House therefore resolved to, “Constitute an ad-hoc committee to appraise the federal government’s current policy framework, to ascertain: who authorized the seizures? Who keeps the seized funds and for what duration, and
“Demand for the statement of account for a period covering 10 years and proffer measures to curb revenue losses and identify and analyze all funds trapped in other banks and funds recovered so far by CBN, EFCC, NFIU and other Agencies and report back within 4 weeks.”