Why disbursement of recovered looted funds is delayed, by AGF
The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Wednesday, opened up on why the disbursement of recovered looted funds is delayed.
According to him, the failure of the National Assembly to pass the ‘Proceed of Crime Act (POCA) Bill’ pending before it accounted for Federal Government’s inability to establish a body to manage the recovered funds.
Malami revealed this while participating in a programme: “Good Morning Nigeria” on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), according to a statement by hi spokesman, Salihu Isah, on Wednesday.
“If Proceed of Crimes Act had been promulgated, we would have had in place an agency that would formulate policy on the management of recovered loots,” Isah quoted Malami as saying.
He said the Act was intended to midwife the Recovered Asset Management Agency (RAMA), with a board comprising a chairman, with 20 years of cognate experience and representatives would be drawn from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Federal Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies and civil society groups.
According to the Malami, RAMA when established will also generate income for government from local and international sources.
He said there is a robust collaboration between states and Federal Government in the fight against corruption, adding that the collaboration informed why the Federal Government granted fiat to states’ Attorneys-General to prosecute federal offences with corruption connotations in the various states.
