Buhari sends money laundering, criminal activities bills to Senate
PRESIDENT
Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, sent his
first two executive bills to the Senate, seeking to prohibit money laundering
and criminal activities in the country.
The bills
are:”The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016″ and “The
Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, 2016.”
Buhari, in a
letter to the the Senate and addresed to the Senate President, Dr Bukola
Saraki, said he was introducing the bills for formal consideration and
enactment into law by the legislature.
In the
letter read by Saraki, during plenary, Buhari informed that the first bill
provides for the repeal of Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended
in 2012.
He explained
that the bill would “make comprehensive provisions to prohibit the laundering
of criminal activities, expand the scope of money laundering, and provide
protection for employees of various institutions, bodies and professions who
may discover money laundering”.
On the
second bill, President Buhari said it “seeks to facilitate the provision and
obtaining by Nigeria of international assistance in criminal matters.”
These, he
stressed, include the provision and obtaining of evidence and things, and the
making of arrangements for persons to give evidence or assist in criminal
investigations.
He further
stated that the bill seeks “the recovery, forfeiture or confiscation of
property in respect of offences, the restraining of dealings in property or the
freezing of assets that may be recovered, forfeited or confiscated in respect
of offences.”
