The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the federal government in the past three years, the commission’s chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has said.
Mr Olukoyede said this on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.
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“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.
The EFCC chairman said Nigeria’s legal framework allows the commission to seek forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without first securing a criminal conviction.
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He noted that the procedure is similar to systems in countries including Australia and Canada.
“We have similar to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada that empowers us to apply for forfeiture of what is suspected to be proceeds of crime,” Mr Olukoyede said.
He explained that the process begins with an application to the High Court, supported by what investigators consider probable grounds for believing that an asset represents proceeds of crime.
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“You apply ex parte to the High Court upon a probable suspicion of the proceeds of crime,” he stressed.
$30m bribe and aircraft
Mr Olukoyede cited the recent forfeiture of an aircraft allegedly linked to a member of a monitoring committee for a power project in Nigeria.
He noted that the individual was found to have allegedly received a $30 million bribe, after which the EFCC pursued the forfeiture of the aircraft.
“This aircraft was forfeited by someone who was supposed to be a member of the monitoring committee of a power project in Nigeria. We discovered he collected a bribe of about $30 million in Nigeria,” he said.
“He forfeited that about three months ago and it has been added to the presidential air fleet at the moment.”
According to Mr Olukoyede, the commission obtained the forfeiture order within two months of approaching the court.
753 housing units
The EFCC chairman also disclosed that the commission had secured the forfeiture of a property containing about 753 housing units from a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“That property contains about 753 housing units we forfeited from an erstwhile governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. We have criminal charges against him [in about three courts,” he said.
48 of 57 Malami-linked properties forfeited
Mr Olukoyede said the EFCC had traced 57 properties allegedly linked to Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s immediate past Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, as part of an investigation into suspected abuse of office.
He explained that the investigation started last year following what he described as reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office.
“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.”
The disclosure comes about six weeks after the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the final forfeiture of 48 of the 57 properties linked to Mr Malami.
The properties, which the EFCC had valued at more than N212 billion, included hotels, a university, commercial facilities, residential buildings and other assets spread across Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and Kebbi states.
PREMIUM TIMES calculated the value of the 48 properties finally forfeited at about N180.4 billion, based on the valuations attached to them by the EFCC.
In its July ruling, the court held that Mr Malami and other claimants had failed to dislodge the EFCC’s case that the properties were acquired through unlawful activities. The judge also held that the civil forfeiture proceedings did not depend on a criminal conviction.
Nine properties were, however, excluded from the final forfeiture order after the court found that the EFCC had not sufficiently established their connection to unlawful activities.
Mr Olukoyede said the commission was considering an appeal over the nine properties.
The former attorney-general and members of his family have denied wrongdoing and are also facing a separate money laundering case.
University forfeited
Mr Olukoyede further cited the forfeiture of a private university allegedly linked to a director in the Federal Ministry of Health.
He said the official voluntarily surrendered the property after an EFCC investigation.
According to the EFCC chairman, the commission’s ability to obtain non-conviction-based forfeiture orders depends largely on investigators’ capacity to trace assets, cooperation from the judiciary and access to credible intelligence.
“We also have some of the best investigators around the world,” he said.
He stated that a proactive judiciary was essential to the effective implementation of non-conviction-based forfeiture, while credible intelligence was equally important in identifying and tracing suspected proceeds of crime.
Mr Olukoyede added that many EFCC investigators had received training at leading institutions around the world, improving their ability to track assets linked to financial crimes.
EFCC offers whistleblowers up to 5%
The EFCC chairman also called for stronger protection and incentives for whistleblowers, particularly those who provide information that leads to the recovery of Nigerian assets taken abroad.
“The citizens must be encouraged with your whistleblower protection,” he stated.
“If any 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 and 5 per cent is going to go back to you upon recovery.”
He noted that people whose information leads to the successful recovery of stolen Nigerian assets could receive financial rewards under the commission’s whistleblower incentive arrangement.
Mr Olukoyede urged members of the public with credible information about Nigerian assets allegedly taken abroad to provide the information to the commission, saying such intelligence could help the government recover proceeds of financial crimes.
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