The Acting Executive Chairman, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol has charged law enforcement agencies to take advantage of the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2023 to improve their assets tracing and recovery efforts with the aim of delivering greater benefits to the country.
Chukkol stated this in a message at the opening ceremony of a 4-day capacity building workshop on the proceeds of crime at the EFCC Academy, Abuja.
The EFCC boss who spoke through Dr. George Ekpungu, Secretary to the Commission, said the Commission was poised to take the lead in the enforcement of POCA.
“Our various Departments, particularly Proceeds of Crime Management Department, are poised to key into the economic recovery and development strategies of this administration which emphasizes crime prevention and uncompromising recovery of assets illegally obtained from the country.”
The Commandant, EFCC Academy, Commander of EFCC, Ayo Olowonihi in his remark, emphasized the importance of taking away benefits from crime.
Professor Akinseyi George, President of the Center for Socio-Legal Studies, identified greed as the major driver of crime as criminals no longer bother about going to prison, knowing that the proceeds of the crime are available for them to enjoy after serving their sentence, and maintained that POCA is designed to put an end to such trend.
The Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Beatrice Jedy-Agba who was represented by A.B. Abubakar said “POCA is a child of necessity. It is a landmark legislation which singularly sets out a comprehensive scheme and prescribes processes and procedures for the tracing, restrain, seizure, confiscation, forfeiture and management of properties derived from unlawful activities”.
She revealed that efforts are being made to create a standardized automated asset forfeiture management system for the effective implementation of the provisions of the Act.
The Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, who was represented by Adedayo Kayode, stressed the need to preserve seized assets from deteriorating to enable Government get good value when they are disposed of.
