ABIA BASED LEGAL PRACTITIONERS COMMEND NASS FOR PASSING MONEY LAUNDERING & ANTI TERRORISM BILLS
REPORTER: EJIOFO UMEGBOGU
Legal practitioners in Abia State have commended the National Assembly for the three important bills it passed into law during Wednesday’s plenary session.
The bills are: the Proceeds of Crime Bill; the Money Laundering Prohibition Act Amendment Bill; and the Terrorism Prevention Act Amendment Bill.
The lawyers, who spoke with Radio Nigeria in Umuahia, were unanimous in their belief that these bills if signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari would greatly strengthen the country’s fight against terrorism, criminality, money laundering and general insecurity.
One of them, Mr. Obinna Ibeawuchi, said the new bill and the amended laws were very important in other to bring Nigeria at par with what obtained in other countries as it concerned crime fighting and terrorism financing, inline with best global practices.
Mr. Ibeawuchi stated that the passage of the bills was long overdue and wondered why it took the national assembly so long to pass such important legal instruments.
He urged the legislative arm of government at all levels to be more proactive in responding to the yearning of the society.
A law teacher at the Abia State University, Dr. Calistus Ojimba, explained that the amended laws would provide for an effective and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the detection, prevention, prohibition, prosecution and punishment of acts of terrorism, terrorism financing, and for related matters.
Dr. Ojimba expressed the hope that “when signed into law, the bills will embolden the nations security architecture to go after bandits, kidnappers, terrorists, as well as their financiers and collaborators.”
He called the attention of security agencies, especially the zone 9 police command to the incessant kidnapping going on along Okigwe-Arodizuogu road and appealed to the police and military hierarchy to launch a special operation, “in other to dislodge the criminal group terrorising road users in that area.”
The law teacher maintained that the menace of kidnapping on the highway posed serous threats to commuters and investors, who wished to make Abia State their investment destination.
But to an Aba based lawyer, Mr. Okechi Njoku, the solution to insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria lay in the establishment of state police and a community policing system.
According to Mr. Njoku, “the current national assembly should bequeath a legacy of a more secured and prosperous society to the next administration by immediately amending the Constitution to allow the establishment of state police.”
