Lagos — The Senate is set to approve the establishment of a special court for financial crimes, the Vice chairman, Senate Committee on Security and National Intelligence, Senator Simeon Oduoye(PDP, Osun Central) has said.

The bill, that is expected to go through the Second reading this week, is titled: " The Financial Crimes Court 2008.

The Senator said that the bill, if passed into law, will create a specialised anti-Corruption court in Nigeria.

According to Senator Oduoye, "The Court will have the powers of a High Court but with exclusive jurisdiction on causes and matters relating to offences committed and triable under the Economic and Financial Act 2002, Independent corruption Practices and other related offences Act 2002 and Money laundering act 1995."

He argued that "corruption, as a problem is too wide to be added to other matters such as land matters, marital issues, chieftaincy issues etc. This is due to the fact that corruption has had negative effect on the economy of Nigeria.

If Nigeria wants to be among the first 20 biggest economies by the year 2020, the nation must double its efforts to fight the scourge of corruption in the country."

If this court is created, according to Oduoye, the country will be in a position to reduce the load of cases in other courts and also reduce the number of prisoners awaiting trial on related matters.