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The continued
absence of Ibrahim Ida, Chairman Senate committee on Defence and Army
has stalled the passing of the Anti Money Laundering bill.

Mr. Ida represents
Katsina Central constituency in the Senate and heads an ad hoc
committee that was mandated by the Senate in July last year to
recalibrate the bill which the senator thought too harsh at the time.

Mr. Ida has since
the beginning of the week been absent each time the bill came up for
hearing. Traditionally, the Senate does not legislate on bills if the
author is not present in the plenary because the author has the
responsibility of defending the spirit and letters of the bill as well
as offer clarifications to fellow lawmakers on any ambiguous part of
the bill.

The anti-money
laundering bill is a complementary legislation to the anti-terrorism
bill which was passed by the Senate last week. Both the anti-money
laundering and anti-terrorism bills are based on recommendations of the
Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established by the G7 Summit held
in Paris in 1989. The anti-money laundering bill will replace the 2004
version of the same bill which is said to lack the relevant provisions
that will make it fully compliant with the recommendation of FATF.
Passage of the anti-money laundering bill will mark Nigeria’s full
compliance with the international requirements for combating terrorism
recommended by FATF.

President Goodluck
Jonathan, for the third time in 11 months, written the lawmakers early
last week to expedite legislation on the Anti-terrorism and Money
Laundering Bills. Following the President’s repeated appeals to the
lawmakers, the Senate hurriedly passed the anti-terrorism bill on
Thursday last week, with enthusiasm to pass the complementary
anti-money laundering bill this week. However, each time it was
presented for hearing, Mr. Ida, the author of the bill was absent.

When contacted,
Mr. Ida rejected calls and did not reply text messages sent to his
official mobile line. The bill is not new to this kind of treatment at
the upper chamber . In July 2010, a deliberation on the bill was called
off after a slow-moving debate and adoption of the individual clauses
in the bill due to the absence of the initial author of the bill, Sola
Akinyede (PDP Ekiti state).

Although the
senators complained of the complex provisions of the bill which they
said could only be explained by the author, the senators also showed
apathy towards the bill. It was thereafter committed to the Mr. Ida
headed ad hoc committee for further calibration but it never came back
for hearing till the president’s last letter of reminder. Deadline for
the passage of the bill has since expired on June 30.