The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has said that the anti-graft agency has recovered or secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Nigerian government since he assumed office three years ago. Read Also EFCC Investigates Man Over……
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has said that the anti-graft agency has recovered or secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Nigerian government since he assumed office three years ago.
Olukoyede disclosed this on Wednesday while speaking at the 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
According to a statement shared on the official X handle of EFCC, Olukoyede was quoted as saying, “Within three years of my assumption of office, we’ve been able to forfeit both cash and assets worth over half a billion dollars to the government.”
The EFCC chairman attributed the recoveries to the professionalism of the commission’s investigators, the effectiveness of the judiciary and access to credible intelligence.
He also highlighted Nigeria’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture framework, which allows the commission to seek the forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction.
According to Olukoyede, the approach has enabled the government to take possession of several high-value assets, including an aircraft, a university, estates, and houses suspected of having been acquired with proceeds of crime.
He cited the recovery of 752 housing units linked to former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, as one of the major asset recovery cases under his administration.
Olukoyede also disclosed that investigations into former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, led to the forfeiture of 48 of 57 properties allegedly traced to him.
“Sometimes last year, I opened investigations upon reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office by the immediate past Attorney-General of Nigeria. We discovered that within eight years of his being in office, we were able to trace about 57 such properties to him. We’ve been able to forfeit about 48,” he said.
The EFCC chairman further called on whistleblowers around the world to provide actionable intelligence on Nigerian assets allegedly stashed abroad, saying the commission has introduced incentives of between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of recovered assets for information that leads to successful recovery.
The Cambridge symposium brings together anti-corruption and economic crime experts from around the world. Olukoyede’s presentation was delivered on the third day of the weeklong event.
