SENATORS yesterday expressed anger over moves by some anti-corruption campaigners to enact a law which will mandate operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to monitor phone calls of Nigerians.

The monitor-phone-call option is to tackle the money laundering scourge in the country.

But, to some Senators, if the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Bill becomes law, the rights of Nigerians to privacy would be infringed upon.

The fear, which is being entertained by the Senate, is derived from Section 13 of the bill which seeks to empower the EFCC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other regulatory authorities to, by an ex-parte order from a Federal High Court, place bank accounts and telephone lines under surveillance.

The Section reads: “The commission, agency, Central Bank of Nigeria or other regulatory authorities, pursuant to an order of the Federal High Court obtained upon an ex-parte application supported by a sworn declaration made by the Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria or other regulatory authorities justifying the request, may, in order to identify and locate proceeds, properties, objects or other things related to the commission of an offence under this Act, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act or other law:

• Place any bank account or any other account comparable to a bank account under surveillance;

• Tap any telephone line or place it under surveillance;

• Obtain access to any computer system;

• Obtain communication of any authentic instrument or private contract, together with all bank, financial and commercial records, when the account, telephone line or computer system is used by any person suspected of taking part in a transaction involving the proceeds, of a financial or other crime.”

The section only passed after Section 13 (b) was amended to read “tap any suspected telephone.”

Contributing to the debate, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Umar Dahiru, said the human rights implication was obvious with the power given to the agencies to place accounts under surveillance.

He said: “This is democracy; we are not in the military regime where you can just get into people’s privacy. I want to enjoy my freedom. We have to take a critical look at this section. If we allow it, it may be unfair,” he said.

Senator James Manager called for caution in allowing the section to pass as it was, maintaining that the situation in Nigeria was peculiar and different from what obtains in developed countries.

He said: “I have warned that this bill is very technical and dangerous. We don’t have to make a law against ourselves, especially to give agencies the powers to tap telephone lines.”

But, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Anti-corruption, Senator Sola Akinyede, argued that the preponderance of technologies and their applications in business transactions had made it imperative to monitor their uses.

He noted that some criminals use telephone to perform transactions that would need to be tracked.

After a minor adjustment on the Bill, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, managed to get a simple voice vote to get the section through.


Clear conscience they said fears no accusation. For Me If they like make them listen.wetin be my own

wachya fink felas ?

Good move!

Monitor their phone calls and internet traffic. Gather evidence against these thieving bastards and deal with them appropriately.

link :

http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62682:money-laundering-moves-to-bug-lines-unsettle-senators&catid=672:top-stories&Itemid=794

The criminals at the national assembly wont agree to that kind of legislation. A bulk of their traffic is useless discussions of schemes and corrupt plots. But this FOI bill must pass even if means shoving it down their A$s!

This new anti-corruption legislation is very good.

^^^ And you think the legislathieves will allow that law to scale through?