By Adedapo Adesanya
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has successfully recovered looted N250 billion in cash between October 2023 and October 2024.
According to the anti-graft agency, this underscores its renewed efforts in the fight against corruption and financial crimes.
The EFCC said it also recovered millions of dollars, pounds, and other currencies in the past year, and recorded 3,500 convictions, demonstrating a broadening of its focus beyond internet fraud, or “yahoo yahoo,” to include high-profile corruption cases that have cost Nigeria millions.
Speaking during an oversight visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes at its headquarters, the chairman of the organisation, Mr Ola Olukoyede, highlighted that asset recovery is a central component of the EFCC’s anti-corruption strategy, stressing that depriving suspects of the proceeds of their crimes weakens their ability to resist prosecution.
“If you understand the intricacies involved in financial crimes investigation and prosecution, you will discover that to recover one billion Naira is war. So I told my people that the moment we start an investigation, we must also start asset tracing because asset recovery is pivotal in the anti-corruption fight.
“If you allow the corrupt or those that you are investigating to have access to the proceeds of their crime, they will fight you with it. So one of the ways to weaken them is to deprive them of the proceeds of their crime. So, our modus operandi has changed tremendously. The moment we begin an investigation, we begin asset tracing. That was what helped us to make our recovery.
“The essence of the EFCC mandate is to move Nigeria forward. And I made known my three policy objectives. So, we have embarked on these since October last year with the help of my management team and the entire EFCC staff, and I am happy to announce to you that between October last year and October this year, we were able to recover about N250billion in cash, tens of millions of dollars, tens of millions of Pound Sterling and other currencies,” he stated.
He explained that the commission equally put up a command performance in the area of convictions, amassing about 3500 convictions in the period spanning from October 18, 2023, to October 18, 2024.
“In the area of convictions, we have done over 3000 and we also want to re-orientate your minds that it is not only yahoo yahoo. We have evidence, we have many high-profile cases in which we secured convictions. I wish to remind everyone that this issue of yahoo yahoo thing that some people are treating with kid gloves is a crime that cost the nation over $500,000.
In the aspects of the corruption and fraud prevention mandate of the EFCC, Mr Olukoyede disclosed to the Committee that the Commission within the last one year had emphasized prevention more than ever before and it is set to achieve better and more cost-efficient results with it.
“I believe that the best way of fighting corruption is to prevent it. In the past one year, we have had cause to establish a new Directorate called Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, FRAC. The mandate of this Directorate is to work with the Office of the Accountant General to look at the financial releases that go into the MDAs and monitor the implementation of projects because, in the last 20 years, we discovered that we have not done up to 20 per cent of our capital project implementation and execution.”
Mr Olukoyede also touched on the workload of the Commission, noting that “apart from the convictions, we have several cases filed in court. In the last one year, we received over 17,000 petitions and right now, we are investigating over 20,000 cases. Between October 2023 and now, we have opened new case files of over 4800,” he said.