In his quest for more potent laws against money laundering and rev up the fight against corruption, President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday presented two bills before the Senate for amendment.
They are the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill 2016 and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill 2016.
The President, in a letter to Senate President Bukola Saraki, which was read on the floor of the Senate, sought expeditious consideration of the two bills for more potent war against financial crimes in the country.
The Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill 2016, if passed into law, would expand the scope of money laundering offences, provide protection for employees of various institutions as well as bodies who may discover money laundering, and the establishment of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
The bill also seeks to enhance customer due diligence, provide appropriate penalties and expand the scope of supervisory bodies, while recognising the role of certain self-regulatory organisations to address the challenges faced in implementation of comprehensive anti-money laundering regime.
The second bill, Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill 2016, on the other hand, seeks to facilitate the provision and obtaining by Nigeria of international assistance in criminal matters, including the provision and obtaining of evidence.
The Bill also seeks the making of arrangements for persons to give evidence or assist in criminal investigations; recovery, forfeiture or confiscation of property in respect of offences; the restraining of dealings in property or the freezing of assets that may be recovered.
It also seeks the forfeiting, or confiscation in respect of offences, the execution of request for search and seizure, the location and identification of witnesses and suspects, the service of documents and other matters connected with it.
In the letter addressed to the President of the Senate, President Buhari urged the Senate to ensure quick passage of the two bills.
The letter reads in part: “Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill 2016: This bill provides for the repeal of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011, as amended in 2012, to make comprehensive provisions to prohibit the laundering of the criminal activities, expand the scope of money laundering offences, provide protection for employees of various institutions, bodies and professions who may discover money laundering, enhance customer due diligence, provide appropriate penalties and expand the scope of supervisory bodies, while recognising the role of certain self-regulatory organisations to address the challenges faced in implementation of comprehensive anti-money regime”.
The President continued: “The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill 2016. This bill seeks to facilitate the provision and obtaining by Nigeria of international assistance in criminal matters, including the provision and obtaining of evidence, the making of arrangements for persons to give evidence or assist in criminal investigations, recovery, forfeiture or confiscation of property in respect of offences; the restraining of dealings in property or the freezing of assets that may be recovered, forfeited or confiscated in respect of offences; the execution of request for search and seizure, the location and identification of witnesses and suspects, the service of documents and other matters connected herewith.
Malabu: Italian govt writes FG over Etete’s OPL 245
The Italian government has written to the Nigerian government seeking assistance in its investigation of acts of bribery committed by some of its public officials in foreign states bordering on the license for Oil Prospecting Licence 245 (OPL 245) owned by former minister of petroleum, Dan Etete.
In a letter dated, June 19, 2015, the Italian government said it was requesting information on the events relating to the granting of the licence for oilfield OPL245 traced in a complaint presented to the public prosecutor at the Court of Milan by a non-governmental organisation (NGO).
The letter signed by the public prosecutor, Fabio De Pasquale, Antonio Pastore and Sergio Spadaro, highlighted some of the allegations in the complaint lodged by the NGO to include the event of December 7, 2011, when an Italian company, ENI SpA, and the Anglo-Dutch company, Royal Dutch Shell, acquired the licence for OPL 245 in Nigeria for $1.1 billion.
The letter noted: “ENI and Shell acquired 50% of the licence, and ENI is the operator. The owner of the licence was the Nigerian company, Malabu Oil and Gas, the property of Dan Etete, the former Nigerian minister of petroleum in the military government of Sani Abacha. This licence was the subject of dispute as Etete is alleged to have bought it illicitly and defrauded the government.”
The Italian government noted that proceedings on the matter are currently at the stage of the preliminary investigations during which the public prosecutor collects evidence for the prosecution.
“The prosecution believes that there was a conspiracy to make payment of bribes to Nigerian public officials following the ‘settlement agreement’ of 29 April, 2011, between the Nigerian government (FGN), the Nigerian company, Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, Nigeria Agip Exploration Ltd (NAE), part of the ENI group and companies in the Shell Group (SNUD and SNEPCO)”, the prosecutor noted.
In requesting the information, the Italian government said, “The Nigerian authorities are urgently requested to acquire and transmit, for use in the criminal proceedings, all the banking information existing in Nigeria concerning the financial flows originated from the payment of the sum of $1,092,040,000 by ENI and thus identifying the final beneficiaries of the payment.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government is reportedly planning to retrieve OPL 245, following recommendation by the office of the director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mohammed Diri, to President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the report, the panel set up by the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Mallami (SAN), had recommended that Shell and Eni be fined at least $6.5 billion (five times the $1.3 billion Shell and Eni originally paid in 2011 for the oil block) in accordance with the relevant provisions of the laws, in conformity with international best practices via the appropriate courts (at) home or abroad as the case may be.
The panel said that from the fine and the amount to be retrieved of the $1.3 billion, the government could make about $8 billion which would help greatly in taking care of the 2016 budget deficit, apart from the money government will continue to make from taxes and royalties.
Sources at the office of the AGF said that there are mounting pressures on government to return OPL 245 to its original owner, Malabu Oil and Gas, on the grounds that it would be in line with President Buhari’s policy on job creation.
It was also gathered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had completed its investigation in the matter and had written a comprehensive report, while the AGF, Malami, had also constituted a powerful team of lawyers in his ministry headed by the Solicitor General of the Federation and his DPP, Diri, to do justice to the matter.
It was also learnt that the EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu, has directed his officers to arraign the beneficiaries of the proceeds of the crime in a joint effort with some countries, including the Italian government, the United States, the Dutch government, the United Kingdom, Portugal and France in line with the legal mutual understanding already signed with these countries.
Crude oil swap: Reps move to recover multi-million naira taxes from oil firm
The House of Representatives Adhoc Committee probing the Crude for Refined Product Exchange Agreement (Oil Swap) has set a machinery in motion to recover all evaded taxes due to Nigeria from the trading companies involved in the arrangement.
Consequently, all companies operating with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are to be subjected to tax examination by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
The order followed startling revelations at the ongoing investigative public hearing organised by the House Committee that most trading companies operating with the NNPC do not have records of tax returns with the FIRS.
FIRS told the committee that Duke Oil Global Investment had refused to furnish it with necessary tax inquiries on its transactions in the country.
Managing director of Duke Oil, Abdulkadir Saidu, said the letter written to his office was not addressed to his company.
Subsequently, the committee asked for verification of names and locations of all companies with the trademark of Duke Oil.
Answering questions from the panel, FIRS coordinating director (Domestic Taxes Group), Babatunde Ajayi, said a trading firm involved in the NNPC oil swap arrangement, Trafigura Nigeria Ltd, had not filed any tax returns with the agency despite engaging in oil transactions in Nigeria.
Trafigura was said to have lifted about 12 million metric tonnes of crude oil under the swap programme without importing any refined product, nor making tax returns.
But representative of Trafigura, which is a non-resident company, James Juslin, had earlier told the House Committee that the company had no tax obligations to Nigeria, since it is an international company.
It was also revealed that a subsidiary of the NNPC, Duke Oil Incorporated, registered in Panama in 1989, had also not filed any tax returns, after received $39m from oil transactions in Nigeria through other companies it sub-contracted.
Ajayi, however, disputed such claims, saying any company operating in the country and engaging in transactions must pay relevant taxes, irrespective of where it was registered.
“From all the information gathered here today, income, that is the commission, was derived from Nigeria, so it is taxable,” Bamidele said.
The House Committee, however, mandated FIRS to interface with all the affected companies with a view to ensuring that all the taxes are recovered from them.
It also mandated the Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC) to furnish it with formal directives on lifting of crude oil by the trading firms, especially Aiteo Nigeria Ltd, before agreements were consummated.
Aiteo’s Managing Director Michel Uchegbulam, said the lifting was done “in good faith”, while explaining that his company did not dispute that it owed Duke Oil Incorporated the sum of $17.9m in commission, after an initial payment of $8.2m.
The final part of the hearing will take place next Tuesday when all concerned are expected to be in attendance.
EFCC quizzes Jonathan’s associate, Jide Omokore
A political ally of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Jide Omokore, was at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Wednesday to honour its invitation.
According to an insider account, Omokore was invited as part of the investigations of the Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Ltd, as chairman of the firm.
EFCC was said to have received several petitions against the company over some contracts won under the watch of Jonathan which ran into several billion of US dollars.
But Omokore left the anti-graft agency’s headquarters by the time this report was filed.
“It is true the man came here but he had left since after answering some questions on a pending matter involving a company he is the chairman. It is an ongoing investigation,” the source said.
However, efforts made to reach the spokesman of the Commission, Wilson Uwujaren, to confirm the report did not yield desired any positive result as he did not pick his calls or reply to the sms sent to his phone by the time this report was filed.
‘How Nigerians in Diaspora front for looters’
A Nigerian civil rights activist based in the United States of America, Mr. Smart Ajaja, Wednesday gave a hint about how some persons he described as very vulnerable Nigerians abroad serve as fronts to looters in stashing their ill-gotten wealth abroad.
He said although some volunteers among the Diasporans were willing to assist President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to further identify some of the looted funds, the government should do a lot more to block movement of physical cash out of the country.
Asked whether there was anything Nigerians living abroad were willing to do in order to assist government’s efforts in recovering the looted funds, Ajala stated that except such exit route was blocked, looted funds would continue to find their way abroad.
“For the ones that were already returned, it was some of the Nigerians in the Diaspora who gave the government the lead to identify those funds. But it is still a lot to be done because most of these people that steal money, they have cronies among us in the diaspora that they use as fronts for money laundering,” he said.
Senate to pass 2016 budget into law Feb 25
The Senate Wednesday fixed February 25, 2016 for passage of the N6.08 trillion 2016 budget proposal.
This followed the conclusion of debate on the general principles of the budget estimates by Senators who passed it for second reading.
The Senate also said it will suspend plenary activities for two weeks, beginning from next week, to allow committees to conduct budget defence for ministries and agencies of government.
The upper legislative chamber also said all committees with oversight duty on ministries and agencies would commence meetings of the various bodies (Thursday) and would round off on February 11, 2016, while submission and defence of reports of sub-committees on Appropriation would be between February 12 and 18, 2016.
It also said it would commence collation and harmonisation of the reports as well as drawing of the bill between February 18 and 22, 2016, while the appropriations bill would be tabled on February 24, 2016 for passage.
The schedule was disclosed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, on conclusion of the second reading of the 2016 money bill.
According to Senator Goje, “The budget has been referred to our committee. We are going to send circulars to all sub-committees to commence budget hearings from tomorrow; this is in line with the change mantra. We are also going to suspend plenary for two weeks from next week so as to allow the sub-committees work.”
Earlier, Senate President Bukola Saraki had commended senators for their commitment during the debate on the general principles of the bill.
Describing the money bill as an “uncommon one”, the Senate President also commended the executive arm of government for presenting, for the first time, budget estimates that are not depended on oil revenues and with a high percentage on capital expenditure.
He urged senators to ensure that all leakages are blocked in the 2016 budget, adding that there is also the need to properly fund all agencies of the government vested with the responsibility of fighting corruption in the country.
Urging senators to ensure that budget estimates are properly tracked, Senator Saraki added, “Mr President has played his role; it is now time for us to play our role and we must get the estimates correctly. We must scrutinize the estimates, critically look at the zero budgeting and we are going to be open about the budget.
“It is also uncommon because of the percentage for capital projects, but we must ensure that the monies are used for the purpose they are meant for. We must also ensure the integrity of this Senate. We must also take the issue of the oil benchmark as very important”, he said.
Also speaking, President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistants on National Assembly for Senate and House of Representatives, Senator Ita Enang and Hon Abdulrahman Sulaiman Kawu, commended the National Assembly for expediting action on the money bill.
They assured that the executive would keep to the practice of budget defence.
-Leadership