The Federal Government of Nigeria has banned all antigraft agencies in the country from seizing assets of corrupt public officials.

The order was released in a new government gazette that has now been made public.

According to the gazette, Vol. 106, No 163, entitled, “Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management Regulation 2019’’, dated Oct. 29, 2019, such powers have now been transferred to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).

With the new directive, only the AGF can initiate seizure orders from the court as all seized assets shall be registered by all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government while all final forfeited assets recovered by agencies shall be handed over to the AGF within 60 days from the commencement of the regulations of management.

Hitherto, the EFCC and the ICPC had the powers to initiate non-conviction based forfeiture.