FG proposes bill for the establishment of special anti-corruption court

The Federal Government sent a bill seeking to establish a special court for anti-corruption on Tuesday to the National Assembly, Punch reports.

The bill which was drafted by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption seeks to establish the court which will exclusively handle corruption cases and other cases including narcotic, human trafficking, kidnapping, cybercrime, money laundering and other related offences.

According to the bill, the proposed court would ensure speedy trials of such offences.

Chairman of PACAC, Prof. Itse Sagay, confirmed that the bill had been sent to the National Assembly.

Sagay said; “As far as I know, the bill has been sent to the National Assembly,”.

The bill proposed in section 7(1) of the bill that it “shall have and exercise exclusive jurisdiction and power in respect of offences specified in Schedule 1 to this Act to be known as ‘scheduled offences’”.

The “scheduled offences” stated in Schedule 1 of the bill are “Terrorism offences under the Terrorism (Prevention) Act (No. 10 of 2011) as amended;

“Economic and financial crimes under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act (E1 LFN 2004);

“Money laundering offences under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act (No 11 of 2011) as amended;

“Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances offences under the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (N30 LFN 2004);

“Trafficking and kidnapping offences under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015 (No 32 of 2015);

“Corruption offences under the Corrupt Practices and other related offences Act (C31 LFN 2004);

“Kidnapping offences under the Criminal Code (C38 LFN) and the Penal Code (P3 LFN 2004);

“Cybercrimes under Cyber Crimes Act 2015, and;

“Such other offences declared under any other Act to be scheduled offences for the purposes of this Act.”