The House of Representatives has proposed that the qualification
for the chairmanship of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission be raised from Commissioner of Police to Assistant
Inspector-General of Police. The parliament also expanded the
qualification to include a legal practitioner of no less than 20
years experience.
These are some of the amendments made to the EFCC
(Establishment) Act, 2004, by the lower chamber of the National
Assembly.
Four House bills seeking to amend the EFCC Act had been
harmonised into one and it passed the third reading on Tuesday.
The passage followed the adoption of the report by the House
Committee on Financial Crime, a copy of which our correspondent
obtained at the weekend.
In the series of amendments to the Act, the lawmakers amended
Section 2 of the EFCC Act relating to the composition of the
commission.
Before the amendment, Section 2 read, “(1) the commission shall
consist of the following members: (a) a chairman, who shall (i) be
the Chief Executive and Financial Officer of the commission; (ii)
be a serving or retired member of any government security or law
enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of
Police or equivalent; and (iii) possess not less than 15 years
cognate experience.”
After the amendment, it reads, “(a) A Chairman, who shall (i) be
a retired or serving member of any government security or law
enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant
Inspector-General (AIG) of Police or an equivalent and possessing
not less than 20 years cognate experience; (ii) a legal
practitioner with at least 20 years post-call experience.”
The Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Magu, is a
commissioner of police.
The House also removed the Secretary of the EFCC from tenured
offices in the leadership of the commission.
On the qualifications to be considered in the appointment of the
EFCC Secretary, a paragraph “e” was added to Section 8(1), which
reads, “A person who is qualified to practise as a legal
practitioner in Nigeria and has been so qualified for not less than
10 years.”
An amendment was also made to Section 27(4), making it
compulsory for the EFCC to obtain ex-parte order from court before
seizing suspected assets.
Also, the House deleted Section 1(2) relating to the Nigerian
Financial Intelligence Unit, which has now been domiciled with the
Central Bank of Nigeria as demanded by the EGMONT Group, from the
EFCC Act.