President Bola Tinubu has declined assent to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Amendment Bill, 2025, recently passed by the National Assembly.
The President’s decision was communicated to the House of Representatives on Thursday by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas during plenary.
The rejected bill proposed granting the NDLEA the authority to retain a portion of the proceeds from drug-related crimes, a significant departure from the current legal framework governing such funds.
President Tinubu, who cited Section 58, Subsection 4 of the 1999 Constitution, said that the bill, if signed, was a contravention of the aforementioned sections.
Tinubu clarified that under existing law, all proceeds from crime must be deposited into the Confiscated and Forfeited Properties Account.
He explained that any disbursement to relevant agencies involved in recoveries must be made by the President, and only with the approval of the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly.
The NDLEA Amendment Bill, 2025, proposes a significant shift in how proceeds from drug-related crimes are managed in Nigeria.
The bill is a new provision—Section 46(4)—which states that “the agency shall retain a portion of the proceeds of crime” recovered during its anti-narcotics operations.
The amendment seeks to change that by enabling the NDLEA to retain a portion of recovered proceeds, reducing its dependence on budget allocations that are often constrained by treasury schedules.
In essence, the bill introduces a targeted reform aimed at boosting the NDLEA’s effectiveness, but it also raises serious questions about governance, legal compliance, and fiscal responsibility.