Senate Passes Bills To Establish Independent Crime Assets Agency, Overhaul Legal Profession Regulation

July 9 () — The Senate, on Thursday, passed two far-reaching judiciary reform bills, including legislation establishing an independent agency to manage and dispose of assets linked to criminal activities, in a move to strengthen Nigeria’s anti-corruption regime and end years of controversy over the handling of recovered assets.

The upper chamber also approved the Legal Practitioners Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026, which seeks to modernise the legal framework governing the legal profession, replacing the decades-old Legal Practitioners Act, Cap. L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

Both bills, the Legal Practitioners Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026 (SB.965) and the Proceeds of Crime Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026 (SB.343), were passed after the Red Chamber adopted the report of its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters during plenary.

A major highlight of the Proceeds of Crime Act (Amendment) Bill is the creation of the Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency, an independent body, to assume responsibility for the management and disposal of recovered assets reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.

The proposed agency is expected to bring greater transparency and accountability to the management of forfeited assets, a responsibility that has largely been shared among anti-graft agencies and has often generated disputes over custody, maintenance and disposal of recovered properties.

Presenting the committee’s report, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire (Ondo Central), said the amendment was designed to close a long-existing gap in Nigeria’s anti-corruption architecture.

According to him, the committee found the legislation both necessary and timely, noting that the new agency would institutionalise a transparent and efficient framework for managing assets linked to criminal activities.

“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”, Adegbonmire stated.

On the Legal Practitioners Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, the committee chairman said the legislation would replace the existing law regulating the legal profession with a more contemporary framework to address emerging realities within Nigeria’s justice system.

He said the committee subjected the bill to extensive scrutiny because of its importance to the administration of justice, stressing that the legal profession remains central to protecting the rule of law and guaranteeing citizens’ access to justice.

“The legal profession is the guardian of the rule of law, and the primary instrument through which Nigerians access justice. The framework that governs it must be constitutionally sound, proportionate and worthy of the confidence of both the profession and the public”, he added.

Following consideration of both reports, the Senate dissolved into the Committee of the Whole, where lawmakers examined the bills clause-by-clause, and adopted the committee’s recommendations and passed them for third reading by voice vote.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio described the establishment of the proposed assets management agency as a significant institutional reform, saying it would ensure that properties recovered from criminal activities are managed transparently and utilised for the benefit of Nigerians.

“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”, Akpabio said.