The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has emphasised the critical role of asset recovery in combating economic and financial crimes, calling it a significant deterrent to corruption.
In a statement released on the EFCC’s X page on Wednesday, Olukoyede revealed that he made the remarks during an address to members of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes.
The committee visited the EFCC’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday for an oversight session.
Olukoyede further explained that if Nigerians fully understood the complexities involved in investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, they would realize that recovering a single billion naira is akin to waging a war.
“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 recoveries.”
Furthermore, the EFCC boss emphasized that any fight against corruption, and economic, and financial crimes would be ineffective unless it actively contributed to energizing the economy.
“As I made it known on the floor of the Senate in the course of my confirmation last year, 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 pounds sterling and other currencies.”
He further stated that the Commission delivered an outstanding performance in securing convictions, achieving approximately 3,500 convictions between October 18, 2023, and 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 (Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) in one year and that is what some people are joking about.
“We expect all these because it is obvious that when you fight corruption, corruption will fight back. But we are not perturbed. We will continue to work irrespective of what people say about us, what we know within ourselves is that we will continue to do this work within the limit of our resources and be committed to it.”
Mr Olukoyede informed the Committee that, in line with the EFCC’s mandate to prevent corruption and fraud, the Commission had placed a stronger emphasis on prevention over the past year.
He assured the Committee that this focus would lead to more effective and cost-efficient results moving forward.
“I believe that the best way of fighting corruption is to prevent it. In the past 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.
“So, our focus this year is to work with the new Directorate and the National Assembly to see if we can meet up to 50 per cent execution of our capital projects. If we do 50 per cent we will be fine as a nation.”
