The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill designed to make comprehensive provisions to facilitate the exchange of mutual assistance in criminal matters between Nigeria and other countries.
The bill passed second reading.
After exhaustive debate on the bill, it was referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters for further legislative work.
Leading the debate on the bill, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, explained that with the advent of globalisation and advancement in communications technology, criminal activities across national borders have continued to grow in leaps, throwing up issues of territorial jurisdiction, which in many ways constitute bottlenecks and a source of great challenge in the successful prosecution of these crimes.
Ndoma-Egba said this was particularly where elements of the offence are committed or traceable to more than one jurisdiction.
According to him, to surmount the difficulty of prosecuting cross border crimes, the common practice is for states to cooperate informally through their respective law enforcement agencies on the basis of reciprocity or alternatively resort to bilateral or multilateral treaties on mutual assistance that obligate state parties to provide such assistance.
He however noted that though many countries are able to provide a broad range of mutual legal assistance to other countries even in the absence of a treaty, most domestic laws of countries tend to create obstacles to such law enforcement cooperation.
He therefore argued: “It is on this basis that a mutual legal assistance legislation for every country becomes desirable and expedient.”
Meanwhile, Senate passed into second reading a Bill seeking for An Act to Regulate the Business of Equipment Leasing in Nigeria and for Connected Purposes.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Ita Enang, seeks amongst others to provide for Equipment Leasing Law in the country to govern the practice of leasing, which had largely been carried out under the common law.