FG gets 223 automobiles, 975 real estate, shares, treasury bills, solid minerals, crypto coins
• Lagos leads as EFCC secures highest convictions of 4,111 in 2024
• Presidency: Agency prosecuting Tinubu’s anti-corruption programme
• Assets recovery not enough, EFCC, ICPC must ensure transparency, says CISLAC
• Falana calls for tougher action against corrupt officials, supporters
• Fast-track whistleblower protection bill to enhance accountability, Onumah urges
Despite Nigeria’s slight improvement in the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), it is yet a long road to redemption out of the country’s double whammy plagues of corruption and misgovernance.
The Guardian gathered at the weekend that about N1 trillion in cash and assets were recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2024, marking the biggest haul in proceeds of crime recovery by the anti-graft agency since its inception in 2003.
This money alone covers the 2024 budget of Yobe (N217 billion), Gombe (N207.75 billion), Ebonyi (N202.13 billion), Nasarawa (N199.88 billion) and Ekiti states (N159.57 billion) combined.
At the current minimum wage of N70,000, this recovered loot will conveniently pay about 1.2 million civil servants for 12 full months, and 25 million Nigerians or families will benefit from that sum if used to purchase the Federal Government’s subsidised rice at N40,000 per 50kg bag as part of efforts to reduce the biting hardship caused by the current administration’s economic policies.
In the latest report by Transparency International (TI), Nigeria scored 26 out of 100—up from 25 in 2023 in the 2024 CPI, moving the country’s global ranking from 145th to 140th among 180 nations. But while this marginal progress may signal some gains in the fight against corruption, the recurrent discovery of humongous sums seized and forfeited to the Federal Government by high-profile Nigerians and Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) x-rays the deep-rooted issues holding back development in Africa’s most populous country that further sinking many of its citizens into despair amid the current administration’s effort to ‘renew’ hope.
To drive home the rot, the EFCC chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede, recently disclosed how he rejected N500 million offers during his mother’s burial in 2019. He had only just been appointed Secretary of the Commission by then-President Muhammadu Buhari. He explained that the substantial gifts, which included cheques and drafts, were sent to him by ministers, permanent secretaries, directors, and other high-ranking officials in government.
In a factsheet that was submitted to President Bola Tinubu, which primarily focused on the activities of EFCC in 2024, a copy of which was sighted by The Guardian, the Commission secured 4,111 convictions out of the 5,083 cases filed in court – the highest number of convictions secured in any operational year from inception to date. This was after it had, throughout the year in review, investigated 12,928 cases from the 15,724 petitions received.
According to EFCC, cases involving Advance Fee Fraud (419), money laundering, and cybercrime were the most prevalent in its investigations. “The high volume of these cases can be attributed to several factors, including rising unemployment, a desire for quick wealth among the youth, a large informal economy, and weak regulatory frameworks. Additionally, cybercriminals continuously evolve tactics, incorporating innovations like AI-driven fraud, deepfakes, and advanced phishing schemes.”
The bulk of the petitions received were from its Lagos office (3,224), followed by 1,576 received at its headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the zonal offices of Kaduna (1,456), Enugu (1,362), Kano (1,270) and Port Harcourt (1,185).
More staggering in the report were the monetary recoveries and asset forfeiture. The amounts recovered in different currencies include N364,597,370,151.35, $214,513,439.55, £54,318.64 and €31,265.00, among others. The impact of this is the future of children yet unborn already stolen.
Assets forfeited to the Federal Government last year alone are: 223 automobiles, five barges/vessels, 975 real estate, 40,844,094 units of shares worth N1,055,190,044.55 and $4,414,801.76, N250,000,000.00 in treasury bills, 70tons of unidentified solid minerals, and crypto values – 13.37BTC worth $572,992.86, 5.97886094 Ethereum worth $13,353.06, and 1,002.547631 USDT ($1,002.22).
While the identities of those whose assets and cash were recovered were conspicuously missing in the report, EFCC stated that the Federal Government has reinvested some monetary recoveries into initiatives that significantly benefit Nigerians and support the country’s long-term development goals.
“An example is the N50 billion granted to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) by the Federal Government from the monetary recoveries of the Commission. This initiative provides loans to Nigerian students in higher education who cannot afford the cost, enabling them to stay in school, complete their degree and be in a position to make constructive contributions to the Nigerian labour force.
“Also worthy of mention is the recovery and subsequent forfeiture to the Federal Government of over 750 duplexes and other apartments in late 2024. This is the single largest recovery in the Commission since inception. The Commission continues to ensure that those who steal our commonwealth do not benefit from it through asset/monetary recovery. Our investigators have recorded commendable successes in identifying, tracing and recovering money and assets pilfered by individuals/corporate including politically exposed persons,” the report explained.
Responding, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Publicity and Special Duties, Tunde Rahman, saluted the EFCC for doing a yeoman’s job in prosecuting the anti-corruption programme of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
“We have seen more arrests, prosecution and recoveries than ever before particularly since Mr Ola Olukoyede got into the saddle as Chairman. He has done a lot within the confines of the law. I say this because I’m aware of it.
“There is even something more instructive in what Olukoyede’s EFCC has been doing. Some of the recoveries the commission has made are going into the government’s social intervention programmes for the most vulnerable segments of society. For instance, only recently, the commission donated N50 billion to NELFUND from its recovery account to partly fund the loan to indigent university students. Arrests and prosecution are going on. So I believe very soon, this will impact Nigeria’s ranking on the corruption index,” he said.
With the recoveries already made in the first 10 weeks of 2025, coupled with the arrests of high-profile politicians and cyber crime suspects in their dozens, the Commission is well on its way to exceeding its 2024 feat in assets recovery.
The EFCC chairman gave an inkling of this recently when he warned Local Government chairmen across the country to be prudent and accountable as they do not have immunity from investigation or prosecution for fraud like the president and governors. And with the Supreme Court ruling that has directed the Federal Government to pay LG allocations directly to the councils, Olukoyede added that the EFCC would not wait until the end of any local government chairman’s tenure before initiating a probe.
But beyond these unending discoveries of sleaze among the nation’s leaders, the EFCC has been urged to strengthen its enforcement capabilities and address emerging digital threats by harnessing technological innovations in its enforcement and prevention efforts.
The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and head of Transparency International (TI) in Nigeria, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said it is insufficient to recover these assets. Still, transparent management is key, and the speedy prosecution of cases serves as a deterrent.
“Asset recovery is one of the tools in fighting corruption because when people loot public funds, and the government makes vigorous efforts to recover those assets and put them for public use, it will go a long way in terms of addressing the victims of corruption, which the actions of corrupt persons had denied them access to basic things like health, education, infrastructure and resources meant for security to protect citizens.
“We must salute the effort of both EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in terms of their determination to ensure that those who have looted or stole public resources do not enjoy the proceeds of crime. We encourage them to continue with this patriotic work. It is good to see that officials are risking their lives to recover these assets for the nation’s benefit. We believe that if the recovery of assets continues, especially transparently, it will help fight corruption. Whether these recoveries will help improve Nigeria’s rating in terms of TI ranking will be determined by the transparent administration and management of the recovered assets/loots.
“More work still needs to be done in the prevention of corruption, especially in the public sector. It is also important that the government ensure there is a proper synergy, coordination and sharing of information and data among the various agencies that are recovering assets. Currently, several agencies like EFCC, ICPC, police, Customs, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) recovering assets should ensure a transparent process is put in place, which will improve the public perception of corruption in Nigeria.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, on his part urged anti-corruption agencies to take firmer steps, including cracking down on individuals who organise protests in defence of corrupt officials.
“It is not freedom of expression when people gather to protect someone who has stolen public money. That is freedom to support corruption,” Falana said. He challenged the EFCC to take legal action against such individuals, arguing that they obstruct justice. He also called for establishing anti-corruption agencies at state and local government levels to ensure proper use of public funds.
“Nigeria’s money is not only being stolen at the federal level. There is massive looting in states and local governments too. We need strong anti-corruption bodies across the country,” he stated.
To nip the corruption menace in the bud, the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) has urged the Minister of Finance, Olawale Edun, to expedite action over the prolonged delay in passing Nigeria’s whistleblower protection bill into law.
AFRICMIL’s Coordinator, Dr Chido Onumah, who last week wrote a letter to the minister, emphasised that a legal framework to safeguard whistleblowers is long overdue, stressing its crucial role in promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance. Onumah expressed concern over the lack of progress in the West Africa region, noting that Ghana remains the only ECOWAS country with a whistleblower protection law.
The whistleblowing policy, introduced in 2016 by the Federal Ministry of Finance, was designed to encourage citizens to report fraud, bribery, and looted government funds. However, its effectiveness has waned over the years, prompting the Federal Government to approve a new whistleblower draft bill in December 2022. Despite this, Onumah lamented that the 9th National Assembly failed to pass the bill into law, leaving potential whistleblowers vulnerable to retaliation.
But another human rights activist and lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, while pointing out what he perceived as a fundamental flaw in the EFCC approach, has emphasized the importance of establishing a clear channel for complaints about the EFCC’s conduct, stating that such a measure would help rebuild public trust.
“As of today, the EFCC is suffering acute trust deficit. If you submit a petition and they don’t attend to it or you suspect the officials have collected money, there should be a channel to make a complaint so that the confidence-building process can start.
“This is an agency established by former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 primarily to fight corruption which has become endemic in our country. The primary reason for establishing the EFCC was not to fight internet fraudsters, but because internet fraud has become such a pervasive thing, it is expected that the commission will tackle it head-on. However, the EFCC needs to change its modus operandi if it wants public support.
“My impression of the commission has changed in recent years. I will not attack their legitimate efforts, but at the same time, I’m not going to pretend that they are on track. The Commission has a corruption problem, a partisanship problem, a nepotism problem, and a professionalism problem. Their modus operandi has not inspired public confidence. The way they pamper politicians is at variance with the way they handle other cases.” (Guardian)
