Law enforcement agencies should take advantage of the Proceeds of Crime, Recovery and Management Act, 2023 to improve their assets tracing and recovery efforts with the aim of delivering greater benefits to the country.

Acting Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol stated this in a message at the opening ceremony of a 4-day capacity building workshop on the proceeds of crime at the EFCC Academy, Abuja.

The EFCC boss spoke through Secretary to the Commission, Dr. George Ekpungu, said the Commission was poised to take the lead in the enforcement of POCA.

According to him, our various Departments, particularly Proceeds of Crime Management Department, are poised to key into the economic recovery and development strategies of this administration which emphasises crime prevention and uncompromising recovery of assets illegally obtained from the country.

The Commandant, EFCC Academy, Commander, Ayo Olowonihi in his remark, emphasised the importance of taking away benefits from crime.

President of the Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Professor Akinseyi George, identified greed as the major driver of crime as criminals no longer bother about going to prison, knowing that the proceeds of the crime are available for them to enjoy after serving their sentence, and maintained that POCA is designed to put an end to such trend.

Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Beatrice Jedy-Agba said “POCA is a child of necessity.

Jedy-Agba said it is a landmark legislation which singularly sets out a comprehensive scheme and prescribes processes and procedures for the tracing, restrain, seizure, confiscation, forfeiture and management of properties derived from unlawful activities”.

She spoke through A.B. Abubakar, revealing that efforts are being made to create a standardized automated asset forfeiture management system for the effective implementation of the provisions of the Act.

The Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, who spoke through Adedayo Kayode, stressed the need to preserve seized assets from deteriorating to enable Government get good value when they are disposed of.