The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered and forfeited cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Federal Government within the past three years, its Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed.
Olukoyede made the disclosure on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.
According to him, Nigeria’s legal framework empowers the EFCC to pursue non-conviction-based forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction.
“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,” he said.
Olukoyede explained that the civil forfeiture process begins with an application to the High Court based on probable suspicion that an asset represents proceeds of crime.
The EFCC chairman said the commission recently secured the forfeiture of an aircraft linked to an individual who allegedly collected a $30 million bribe in connection with a power project.
He said the aircraft was forfeited about three months ago and has since been added to the Presidential Air Fleet.
According to Olukoyede, the forfeiture order was secured within two months of the commission’s application to the court.
Olukoyede also disclosed that the EFCC had forfeited a property containing about 753 housing units from a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He said the commission has criminal charges against the individual in three courts.
The EFCC chairman further cited an investigation involving Abubakar Malami, immediate past attorney-general of Nigeria.
He said the investigation, which commenced last year following what he described as reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office, led to the tracing of 57 properties allegedly linked to the former attorney-general.
“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.
Olukoyede also mentioned the forfeiture of a private university linked to a director in the Federal Ministry of Health, saying the official voluntarily surrendered the property following the commission’s investigation.
The EFCC chairman attributed the commission’s success in securing non-conviction-based forfeiture orders to three major factors: the ability of investigators to trace assets, cooperation from the judiciary and access to credible intelligence.
He said many EFCC investigators had received training at leading institutions around the world, strengthening the commission’s capacity to investigate financial crimes and trace illicit assets.
Olukoyede also called for stronger protection and incentives for whistleblowers, particularly those who provide information leading to the recovery of Nigerian assets held outside the country.
He said whistleblowers whose information results in successful asset recovery could receive between 2.5 percent and 5 percent of the recovered value.
“If any of you is privy to where Nigerian assets are stolen or taken anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you. Between 2.5 and 5 percent is going to go back to you upon recovery,” he said.
Olukoyede said credible intelligence, effective investigations and judicial cooperation remain critical to strengthening Nigeria’s asset recovery efforts.
