EFCC Offers Whistleblowers 5% of Recovered Assets Stashed Abroad
By Victor Idajil
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is now offering whistleblowers up to 5% of any recovered Nigerian assets found abroad.
EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, made the announcement on Wednesday while speaking at the 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime in Cambridge, UK.
He said anyone with credible information on where stolen Nigerian funds or properties are hidden anywhere in the world should come forward.
“I welcome all of you to the world of whistleblowing. 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,” Olukoyede said.
“That is an incentive we have put in place to encourage people to come forward to give information about stolen assets.”
The chairman said the reward could make informants millionaires, depending on how much is recovered.
“You never know if you give any information here, some of you may leave this place, multi-millionaire in your lifetime,” he said, drawing applause from the audience.
According to EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale, the goal is to get better intelligence to trace assets that were moved out of Nigeria through corruption.
Olukoyede said the commission has recovered and secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth over $500 million for the Federal Government in the first three years of his tenure.
“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 credited the recoveries to strong investigations, a responsive judiciary, and credible tips.
He also explained Nigeria’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture law, which allows the EFCC to seize suspected proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction. He compared it to similar laws in Australia and Canada.
Through that process, he said, the government has forfeited assets including an aircraft, a university, estates and houses linked to corruption.
Olukoyede cited two high-profile cases:
752 housing units linked to former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, have been recovered.
An investigation into former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami (SAN). “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.
The Cambridge symposium brings together anti-corruption experts from around the world. Olukoyede’s address was delivered on day three of the week-long event.
