By Adedapo Adesanya
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has offered whistleblowers up to five per cent of recovered assets for actionable information leading to the recovery of Nigerian assets stashed abroad.
The Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mr Ola Olukoyede, announced the incentive while delivering a lecture at the 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime at Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Mr Olukoyede urged individuals with information on monetary and non-monetary assets allegedly stolen from Nigeria and kept outside the country to approach the Commission, promising financial rewards upon successful recovery.
“If any one of you is privy to where Nigerian assets are stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you; between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent, it’s going to go back to you upon recovery,” he said.
The EFCC chairman said the incentive was designed to encourage people with credible intelligence to come forward, adding that some whistleblowers could potentially earn millions of dollars from successful asset recovery.
“That is an incentive we have put in place to encourage people to come forward to give information about stolen assets,” he added.
Mr Olukoyede also disclosed that the EFCC had recovered and secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Nigerian government since he assumed office.
“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 attributed the recoveries to the professionalism of EFCC investigators, judicial support and access to credible intelligence.
Mr Olukoyede further highlighted Nigeria’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture framework, which allows the Commission to seek forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction.
“We have something similar to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada that empowers us to apply the forfeiture to proceeds of what is suspected to be proceeds of crime.”
According to him, the framework has resulted in the forfeiture of assets including an aircraft, university, estates and houses suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of crime.
He cited the recovery of 753 housing units linked to former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, and an ongoing investigation involving former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami.
Mr Olukoyede said investigators traced 57 properties to Mr Malami and had secured forfeiture orders on 48 of them.
“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.
