The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has said that the federal government would resume the prosecution of detained terror suspects, including Boko Haram in two weeks.
Fagbemi said plans were in top gear to ensure a seamless process that will involve the combination of normal physical court trial process with virtual sittings.
The AGF spoke in Abuja on Thursday, November 16, during the opening session of the 40th Technical Commission and Plenary Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), an agency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Fagbemi said: “Efforts are on to resume the trial of those categories of people. And I think, in the next two weeks, it will be a different story. We are conscious of that issue.
“Facilities are being put in place. Apart from the regular physical mode of trial, we working on ways to ensure that virtual trials can also be conducted.
“This is intended to prevent delay. The government is not shying away from its responsibility of providing funds for this purpose. The idea is to ensure that we deploy adequate facilities to achieve this,” he said while responding to a question.
He noted that with increased funding, provision of necessary legislative framework, and improved facilities for relevant agencies over the years, Nigeria has made steady progress in its fight against money laundering, terror financing, arms proliferation, and associated crimes.
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Fagbemi, who assured that the Nigerian government was committed to adding the fight against money laundering, terror financing, and related crimes, said the country has since 2021 seized N45 billion in illicit proceeds.
He said: “Building on the changes to our legislative frameworks, we have also invested significant resources across the institutions primarily responsible for protecting our financial system from the highest risk predicate offences identified, corruption, drug trafficking, fraud, and terrorist financing. In 2022, we increased the budgets for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency by almost 95 percent.
‘We now have over 1,500 officers dedicated to investigating and prosecuting money laundering across these three agencies alone.
“These sustained investment has seen increased numbers of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions consistently since 2021 with 5,118 investigations, 1,509 prosecutions, and almost 500 convictions secured resulting in over 45 billion naira of illicit proceeds seized.
“We have also made progress in tackling the financing of terrorism and in particular, I am pleased that we have identified and designated a number of individuals and entities linked to terrorist activity and seized funds linked to them.”
The Director General of GIADA, Edwin Harris Jr. noted that the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing, and other forms of transnational crimes urgently requires coordination and cooperation with oneness of purpose in protecting the economies of member states of the ECOWAS and preventing other adverse activities to the security of the sub-region.
Harris Jr assured that GIABA will continue to work with both its members and partners in delivering on its mandate in a more meaningful way, using the collective expertise and shared vision of member states in strengthening their AML/CFT regimes.
He said his agency plans to equally engage in enhanced advocacy to political leaders on the urgency of demonstrating political will that trickles down at operational and policy levels for a more effective and robust fight against transnational crimes.
Harris Jr noted that “results from accessed countries thus far published from the second round show progress has been made in terms of technical compliance across member states, however, fundamental major improvements are required in terms of effectiveness.”
The Vice President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, Jeremy Weil hailed GIABA for the progress it recorded in its Effectiveness Improvement Action Plan (EIAP) and gave tips on how to improve on its activities.
One of such, Weil, noted, was for GIABA to continue to enhance the coordination and delivery of technical assistance and training.
He also urged GIABA to continue building institutional capacity, in particular by filling vacancies in the Evaluation and Compliance Directorate which will be a critical unit in the next round.
The President ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Toray assured that his organisation will continue to provide the requisite assistance to enable GIABA and member states to accelerate their compliance with international standards on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and proliferation of arms.
The ECOWAS President, who was represented by his Senior Technical Assistant and former Finance Minister of the Republic of The Gambia, Mambury Njie, said states of the sub-region must do all within their powers to tame money laundering and related crimes in West Africa.
He added: “As a region, we cannot afford to relax as money laundering (ML), Terrorism Financing (TF) and other organized crimes threaten regional peace and sustainable development.
“The generally low level of effectiveness achieved by member states in their current round of mutual evaluation is concerning and has adverse implications for the regional integration agenda.”