The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has offered whistleblowers between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of recovered stolen Nigerian assets for information that leads to the recovery of such assets 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.
Olukoyede said the incentive was part of efforts to encourage citizens to provide credible information on stolen Nigerian assets hidden or transferred outside the country.
“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 identified asset tracing, judicial cooperation and access to credible intelligence as key factors behind the commission’s success in securing non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
He also described the commission’s investigators as among the best in the world.
Olukoyede disclosed that the EFCC had secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Federal Government within the past 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 cited several cases to illustrate the commission’s recent asset recovery efforts, including forfeiture proceedings involving a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and an immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation.
According to Olukoyede, the EFCC is constitutionally empowered to seek the forfeiture of suspected proceeds of crime by first obtaining an order from a High Court.
He said the process is similar to provisions applicable in countries such as 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.
“You apply ex parte to the High Court upon a probable suspicion of the proceeds of crime,” he explained.
Olukoyede also disclosed that the EFCC recently secured the forfeiture of an aircraft linked to an individual allegedly involved in a $30 million bribery case.
He said the aircraft belonged to a person who was reportedly a member of the monetary committee of a power project in Nigeria and had allegedly received the bribe.
According to the EFCC chairman, the aircraft was forfeited about three months ago and has since been added to the Presidential Air Fleet.
Olukoyede further revealed that the commission had forfeited a property containing about 753 housing units linked to an erstwhile CBN governor.
He said the former CBN chief is facing criminal charges in three courts in connection with the allegations.
“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.
Speaking on another major asset recovery case, Olukoyede said the EFCC had traced about 57 properties to former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, following an investigation into alleged criminal abuse of office.
He said the commission had so far secured the forfeiture of about 48 of the properties.
“Sometimes last year, I opened investigations upon reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office by the immediate past attorney-general of Nigeria.
“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 said.