Senator representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to sign an executive order to activate the Unexplained Wealth Act and make the job of the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) easy.
An Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) is a type of court order issued by a court to compel the target to reveal the sources of their unexplained wealth. UWOs were introduced by sections 1–2 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 and are governed by sections 362A–362T of Part 8 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Speaking while taking questions from senators ahead of his confirmation, the new EFCC chairman, AbdulRasheed Bawa has said there were certain provisions in the EFCC Establishment Act that more or less gave the commission such powers.
He noted that “Section 7, subsection 1b of the Act says the Commission has the power to cause an investigation to be conducted into the properties of any person that appears to the commission that the person’s lifestyle and the extent of the properties are not justified by his source of incomes.”
But speaking with journalists at the weekend, Ndume, the chairman Senate Committee on Army, insisted that there was the need to domesticate the Unexplained Wealth Act in Nigeria. He specifically asked the anti-graft agency to discontinue plea bargaining.
He said: “The President has the right to sign an Executive Order. Nobody can challenge it in court. The President should also send a bill on unexplained wealth to the National Assembly to domesticate the unexplained wealth Act. Most advanced countries of the world are practising it.
“Anybody that steals government money must be dealt with. It is unfair to steal N100m from government coffers and return N80m in the guise of plea bargaining. If the newly appointed Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is to work efficiently, a law on unexplained wealth should be enacted. It is embedded in the EFCC Act but it is not enough. The law on unexplained wealth should stand alone and domesticated in our country laws. I don’t support plea bargain. I really think that the President should sign an executive order to make Bawa work effectively. Once the EFCC operatives see anyone flaunting a property or automobile that is beyond his income, they should ask him how and where he made his money.
“If such a person could not give sufficient and convincing explanation, the government should confiscate such property. Amnesty international spelt out how the unexplained wealth law works maybe we should adopt it as a nation. If we are serious about fighting corruption in Nigeria, the Unexplained Wealth law should be enacted. There are so many luxury houses in choice areas all over the nation’s urban centres owned by people who ordinarily cannot afford to build such mansions based on their income. If such owners cannot explain it, they should forfeit it to government.”
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