The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has offered whistleblowers between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of recovered stolen Nigerian assets for information leading to the recovery of such assets held abroad.
Olukoyede disclosed this on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom, The Cable reports.
The anti-graft agency boss mentioned that the ability of its operatives to trace assets, cooperation from the judiciary and access to credible intelligence are significant factors that contribute to the agency’s success in securing non-conviction-based forfeiture orders. He also noted that the EFCC has some of the best investigators around the world.
Addressing participants from other countries on the importance of protecting whistleblowers, Olukoyede urged citizens to come forward with information, assuring them of the agency’s whistleblower protection and explaining that anyone privy to knowledge of a stolen Nigerian asset located anywhere in the world would be entitled to between 2.5 and 5 per cent of the value upon recovery.
The EFCC boss further revealed that the agency had forfeited cash and assets worth over $500 million to the Federal Government in the past three years, noting that within three years of his assumption of office, the commission had been able to forfeit both cash and assets worth over half a billion dollars to the government.
He cited several cases in which the agency had recorded success, including forfeiture cases involving a former Chairman of the Central Bank of Nigeria and an ex-Attorney-General of the Federation.
Olukoyede noted that the agency is constitutionally empowered to seek the forfeiture of suspected crime proceeds, beginning with getting an order from the High Court, explaining that this process is similar to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada, where the commission applies ex parte to the High Court upon a probable suspicion of the proceeds of crime.
The EFCC boss recalled an instance in which the agency forfeited an aircraft from an unnamed individual who had been involved in a $30m bribe. He explained that the aircraft belonged to someone who was supposed to be a member of the monetary committee of a power project in Nigeria, and that investigations revealed he had collected a bribe of about $30 million. He said the individual forfeited the aircraft about three months earlier, and it had since been added to the presidential air fleet.
Olukoyede also cited the forfeiture of a property belonging to an ex-CBN chairman, describing it as containing about 753 housing units forfeited from a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, against whom the commission has criminal charges pending in about three courts.
Furthermore, the anti-graft agency boss mentioned a scandal involving the immediate former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami. He explained that upon suspicious abuse of office levelled against Malami, the agency had opened investigations sometime last year based on reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office, and had traced about 57 properties to him within his eight years in office, of which about 48 had since been forfeited.
According to the report, Olukoyede also cited the forfeiture of a private university linked to a director in the Federal Ministry of Health, after which the official voluntarily surrendered the property following the commission’s investigation.
