Senate Approves Bill To Create Agency For Managing Recovered Crime Assets

(Nigerian Senate. Photo by Premuim Times)

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill seeking to establish an independent agency to recover, preserve, manage and dispose of assets linked to unlawful activities, in a move lawmakers said would strengthen Nigeria's anti-corruption framework and improve accountability in the handling of recovered properties.

The upper chamber also passed the Legal Practitioners Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026, after considering and adopting the reports of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.

The two bills the Legal Practitioners Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026 (SB. 965) and the Proceeds of Crime Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026 (SB. 343) scaled third reading during Thursday's plenary session after lawmakers considered the committee's recommendations.

Presenting the committee's reports, its chairman, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire, explained that the Legal Practitioners Bill seeks to repeal the existing Legal Practitioners Act, Cap. L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and replace it with a modernised legal framework aimed at strengthening the regulation of the legal profession.

According to him, the proposed legislation is designed to raise standards within the profession and ensure a regulatory framework that reflects present-day realities.

"The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and legal matters recommends that the Senate do consider and pass the bill for an Act to repeal the Legal Practitioners Act Cap. L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and enact the Legal Practitioners Act, 2025, to provide for the regulation of the legal profession in Nigeria and for related matters, subject to the observations, findings and amendments set out in this report," he said.

Adegbonmire noted that the committee subjected the bill to extensive scrutiny given its significance to the country's justice system.

"The legal profession is the guardian of the rule of law, and the primary instrument through which Nigerians access justice," he said.

"The framework that governs it must be constitutionally sound, proportionate and worthy of the confidence of both the profession and the public itself," he added.

Turning to the Proceeds of Crime Act (Amendment) Bill, the lawmaker explained that the proposed legislation seeks to address longstanding concerns over the management of assets recovered from criminal activities by establishing a dedicated agency to oversee the process.

He said the proposed proceeds of crime recovery and management agency would be responsible for recovering, preserving and disposing of properties reasonably suspected to have been derived from unlawful activities, noting that the legislation fills a critical institutional gap in Nigeria's anti-corruption architecture.

"The bill addresses a genuine and long-standing gap in Nigeria's anti-corruption architecture.

Its objectives are laudable, its need is urgent, and the committee is satisfied that, with the amendments recommended in this report, it will serve the public interest well," he said.

Following consideration of the reports, the Senate dissolved into the Committee of the Whole, adopted the recommendations clause-by-clause, and passed both bills through a voice vote.

Speaking after the passage of the Proceeds of Crime Act (Amendment) Bill, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the new agency would ensure that recovered assets are managed transparently and in the interest of the Nigerian people.

"Now we have an agency that will manage those properties for the benefit of Nigerians.

I also thank my colleagues for rising to the occasion and seeing the need to conclude this," he said.

The passage of the bill comes amid recurring concerns over the custody, maintenance and disposal of assets recovered by anti-graft agencies, with stakeholders repeatedly calling for a centralised and transparent framework to prevent abuse, duplication of responsibilities and the deterioration of recovered properties.

Both bills will now be transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence before being forwarded to the President for assent.