The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has offered whistleblowers between 2.5 per cent and five per cent of recovered Nigerian assets for credible information that leads to the recovery of stolen funds and properties held abroad.
EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom, where he spoke on the importance of whistleblower protection and international cooperation in the fight against economic crime.
Olukoyede urged citizens with knowledge of illicitly acquired Nigerian assets located anywhere in the world to provide such information to the commission, assuring them of a financial reward upon successful recovery.
“The citizens must be encouraged with your whistleblower protection. If any of you is privy to where a Nigerian asset is stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you. Between 2.5 and 5 per cent is going to go back to you upon recovery,” he said.
The EFCC chairman said asset tracing, credible intelligence and cooperation from the judiciary had remained critical to the commission’s ability to secure non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
He added that the commission had developed significant investigative capacity, boasting that the EFCC has “some of the best investigators around the world.”
Olukoyede disclosed that the commission had secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Federal Government within the last three years.
“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.
He explained that the EFCC is empowered to approach the High Court for forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime, describing the process as comparable to mechanisms available in Australia and Canada.
“We have something similar to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada that empowers us to apply for the forfeiture of proceeds of what is suspected to be proceeds of crime,” Olukoyede said.
He cited the forfeiture of an aircraft linked to an individual allegedly involved in a $30 million bribery case as one of the commission’s recent successes.
According to him, the aircraft has since been added to the Presidential Air Fleet.
The EFCC boss also disclosed that the commission had forfeited a property comprising about 753 housing units allegedly linked to a former Chairman of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who, he said, is facing criminal charges before three courts.
Turning to the case involving former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Olukoyede said the commission commenced an investigation following allegations of criminal abuse of office.
He said investigators traced about 57 properties allegedly linked to the former AGF, with approximately 48 of them already forfeited.
“Sometimes last year, I opened investigations upon reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office by the immediate past Attorney-General of Nigeria,” he said.
“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.”
Olukoyede further disclosed that the EFCC had also secured the forfeiture of a private university allegedly linked to a director in the Federal Ministry of Health, adding that the official subsequently voluntarily surrendered the property following the commission’s investigation.
The EFCC chairman said stronger whistleblower protection, access to credible intelligence and effective international cooperation would remain crucial to Nigeria’s efforts to trace, recover and prevent the concealment of proceeds of crime.
