Terrorism Prevention, Money Laundering prohibition bills await Buhari’s assent
… Passage will curb illicit fund from drugs, corruption, kidnapping — Adamu
By Ariemu Ogaga
The Bills seeking to nip terrorism and money laundering in the bud await the president assent as House of Representatives passed them and others for third reading.
The terrorism Bill is meant to repeal the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011 and the terrorism prevention Amendment Act, 2013.
The Bill sponsored by the Executive and passed by the House during plenary on Wednesday in
Abuja sought to enact the terrorism prohibition and prevention bill 2022.
The terrorism prevention bill is expected to provide an effective, unified and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the detection, prevention, prohibition, prosecution and punishment of acts of terrorism.
The bill would also see to terrorism financing, proliferation and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in Nigeria.
The House also passed a bill for an Act to repeal the money laundering prohibition Act, 2011 (as amended) and enact the money laundering prevention and prohibition Bill, 2022.
This would provide comprehensive legal and institutional framework for the prevention and prohibition of money laundering in Nigeria.
The bill if assented to by the President would also established the special control unit under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
The house also passed a bill for an Act to provide framework for the support, management and protection of witnesses who provide information, evidence.
The bill also sought to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies during inquiries, Investigations and prosecution
Newsmen also reports that a bill for an Act to repeal the Public Complaints Commission Act, 2004 and enact the Public Complaints Commission Bill, 2022 also passed for third reading.
The bill is for the establishment of the Public Complaints Commission with wide powers to inquire into complaints by members of the public.
The bill is concerned with the administrative actions of any public authority and companies and their officials.
Passage will curb illicit fund from drugs, corruption, kidnapping — Adamu
Reacting to the development in a chat with Nigerian NewsDirect on Wednesday, a security expert and Chief Executive Officer, Beacon Security Consult, Dr. Kabiru Adamu said bill when passed will address illicit fund from drugs, corruption, kidnapping.
He disclosed that Nigeria currently lag behind in anti-corruption fight.
According to him, “Firstly Nigeria is on a time lag and needs to act fast to join the committee of nations in the global best practice for addressing illicit funds and money laundering. If I recall rightly the deadline for Nigeria to amend its local laws to meet the global standards is either July or September 2022.
“Failure to do will ostracise Nigeria from international banking platforms. Therefore these reviews by the NASS (Senate first and now House of Representative) is in fulfillment of this international requirements.
“The overarching objective of these reviews is to increase transparency in financial transactions in both the domestic and international financial systems. This will prevent all illicit funds from impacting national economies as well as stop money laundering. It will address not just illicit funds from drugs but I’ll gotten monies from kidnap for ransom, corruption etc,” he said.
