Let’s give Olukoyede his flowers

BY TONY EGBULEFU

The last one year saw the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC break every record it set in asset forfeiture, prosecution and conviction in its 22 years of existence. Leading up to this are institutional innovations and strides which the EFCC Executive Chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede took to a whole new height in his one and half year of exemplary leadership of the Commission.

The record-setting 4,111 (Four Thousand, One Hundred and Eleven) convictions the EFCC earned in 2024 followed a record-breaking 12, 928 (Twelve Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty-eight) investigated cases of which 5,083, (Five Thousand and Eighty-three) were filed in courts.

Some of the arrests and forfeitures were not just jaw-droppers, they set specific records.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, operatives of Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Commission rounded up a syndicate of 792 suspected cryptocurrency investment and romance fraud in Lagos. The haul was made in an imposing seven-storey building branded “Big Leaf Building” on No.7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. Of this number, 194 were nationals of China, Tunisia, Philippine, Kharzartan, and Pakistan, who turned out to be the ring leaders and masterminds. The “Big Leaf Building,” which could easily be mistaken for a corporate headquarters of a financial establishment was in actuality, a cybercrime academy, where the foreign adepts in internet fraud train their Nigerian greenhorn accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams.

Apart from the colossal human tally, recovered were 249 active foreign phone lines, over 100 internet routers, over 400 computers and over 500 active SIM cards.
December 2, 2024, saw the Commission set a new record in asset recovery with a final forfeiture order, secured in a Federal Capital Territory High Court, presided over by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie on Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja, measuring a staggering 150, 462.86sqm and containing a dizzying 753 units of duplexes.
Cash recoveries in national currency hit an all-time high of N364,597,370,151.35 (Three Hundred and Sixty-four billion, Five Hundred and Ninety-seven million, Three Hundred and Seventy Thousand, One and Hundred and Fifty-one Naira, Thirty-five Kobo) within the period. In foreign currencies, it climbed to a record-setting $214. 51 million; €54,319 31,265; CAD$2,990 and AUD $740.00. Others are: CFA7,821,375, UAE Dirham 170, Riyals 5,115, W73,000, ¥105, GH¢225 and Rand 50.00

Recovered in crypto currencies are, 13.37 Bitcoins (worth approximately $572,992.86), 5.97886094 Ethereum (worth $13,353.06), 298.4770071 Green Satoshi tokens (worth $6), 1,002.547631 USDT ($1,002.22), N2,699,233 worth of USDT (Tether Coin, TRC-20).

Other assets recovered by the Commission include the final forfeiture of every asset of Nok University, Kaduna to the federal government on June 7, 2024, illicitly acquired by Anthony Hassan, a former Director of Finance and Accounts, (DFA) in the Federal Ministry of Health, 378 electronics, one factory, one hotel, two gold chains, 14 parcels of land, petroleum products, 173 vehicles and 70 tons of unidentified solid minerals; 40,844,094 units of shares worth about N1,055,190,044.55 and $4,414,801.76; and N9,477,977,318.78, $2,605,858.30 and GBP1,600.

To stem the tide of naira abuse and the dollarization of the economy, Olukoyede in March 2024 set up a Special Task Force against naira abuse and dollarisation of the economy which operates in all the Commission’s 14 Zonal Directorates and the headquarters for the enforcement of laws against currency mutilation and dollarization of the economy. The Special Task Force has succeeded in changing the behavioural approach of Nigerians in handling the national currency.

Today, naira abuse in social events has almost become a thing of the past. More than 50 convictions have been secured in this regard. The convicts cut across different classes of the society, with Idris Okuneye (a.k.a Bobrisky) and Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, who bagged six months imprisonment topping the chart of high- profile convicts in this regard. Another offender, Pascal Chibuike Okechukwu (a.k.a Cubana Chief Priest) had his charges compounded and was fined.

Olukoyede’s policy objective to prioritize fraud prevention as much as enforcement saw to his reintroduction of Inter-faith Manual for Christian and Islamic faiths, which was launched in a national event at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on January 31, 2023, themed: “Youth, Religion and the Fight against Corruption.” The manual provides anti-corruption, economic and financial crimes doctrinal guide for clergies in both faiths for inculcation into the faithful.

Another aspect of fraud prevention mechanism which Olukoyede brought into the mix last year is the Fraud Risk Assessment and Prevention for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), which was conceived to prevent occurrence of fraud in MDAs of government. The Fraud Risk Assessment and Prevention is a template on corruption and fraud prevention in MDAs which are hugely vulnerable to resource hemorrhage with attendant negative impacts on the nation’s development.

Further in pursuit of the fraud prevention mechanism, Olukoyede within the period established the department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control (FRAC) which is saddled with the responsibility of examining the systemic challenges that allow corruption to fester in the country. The new department implements aspects of the Commission’s Corruption Prevention Strategy that requires risk-based approaches. In line with the Commission’s enforcement and prevention mandate, the EFCC boss in the past one year, set up a Visa and Immigration Fraud Unit in all its zonal directorates and the headquarters to tackle visa and immigration fraud in the country. Setting up the unit became compelling as a result of the stream of fraud taking place on immigration matters in the country.

Further in the same direction, the EFCC Radio 97.3FM was commissioned in May 2024. With it, the Commission under Olukoyede became the first to own and operate a radio station, dedicated to the promotion of the fight against corruption. The radio station was commissioned by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Mohammed Manga.
It is also to Olukoyede’s credit that Public Complaints Desks were established in all its zonal directorates and the headquarters. This initiative is to facilitate public access to the Commission on issues of complaints.

In addition, the EFCC boss in October last year, established a Cybercrime Centre Rapid Response Centre. The Centre accelerates information transmission on internet-enabled financial crimes from the public and action from the Commission. The Rapid Response Centre code named, (Project E247CR2C), is designed to process real time information on cybercrime and escalate them for immediate remediation. It was unveiled by the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu.

In his bid to boost the intellectual strength of the EFCC workforce and promote distance learning, the Chairman within the last one year established electronic learning management studio at the EFCC Academy in Karu, Abuja. The studio was Commissioned in August 2024 as part of activities marking the 6th Annual General Assembly of the Network of National Anti-corruption Institutions of West Africa, NACIWA, hosted by the Commission.
Olukoyede in the past few months introduced policy reforms that have standardized the procedures for sting operations across all formations of the Commission and drove home the true definition of sting operation in the Commission as well as stipulating the appropriate time for such operations, the competence and experience of officers to lead such operations, intelligence handling, surveillance etiquette, security consideration and team safety frameworks.

The reforms have also brought added integrity and professionalism in the Commission’s Exhibit Room procedures and practices, determining the competence of officers to be charged with Exhibit Room responsibility and the size of the team. It also provides new layers of security for the Exhibit Room, including access protocol for non-exhibit staff.

Olukoyede in the year under review also set in motion, a groundwork for the establishment of Cybercrime Research Centre in the Commission’s New Academy in Giri, Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT. The initiative takes strong roots in his desire to entrench financial integrity in Nigeria’s cyberspace as much as in his resolve to redirect the youth onto the path of ethical values.

As a hub for advanced research, training, and capacity building in the fight against cybercrimes, the Centre will focus attention on three key areas: Advanced Fraud Detection and Prevention; Youth Empowerment and Capacity Building.
As the workload of the Commission continues to expand, the Chairman, last year conceived three new directorates, which are set to emerge in Ekiti, Katsina and Anambra, bringing the Commission’s zonal directorates to 17.

The additions are the results of his efforts to bring the commission closer to the people and facilitate speedy intervention of the EFCC in dealing with financial crime situations.
Olukoyede’s efforts in investigation and prosecution of high profile cases within the year, also deserve a special mention. In spite of the long-winding procedures, criminal investigations were successfully concluded on four former governors, three former ministers and a former CBN Governor in 2024, upon which they were subsequently arraigned in court and currently facing prosecution by the Commission.

The governors are, Abdulfatah Ahmed, former Kwara State governor, who is facing prosecution for alleged N5.78billion fraud; Willie Obiano, former Anambra State governor, who is facing prosecution for alleged N4billion fraud; Darius Dickson, former Taraba State governor, who is facing prosecution for alleged N27billion fraud; Yahaya Bello, former Kogi State governor, who is being prosecuted for alleged N80.2billion and N110.4billion fraud in two different courts and Theodore Orji, former governor of Abia State, who is being prosecuted for alleged misappropriation of N47 billion.

In the league of former ministers are, Hadi Sirika, former Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, who is being prosecuted for alleged N5.8billion and N2.8billion fraud in two different courts; Olu Agunloye, former Minister of Power, who is facing prosecution for alleged $6billion fraud; Saleh Mamman, former Minister of Power and Steel, who is being prosecuted for alleged N33.8billion fraud and Godwin Emefiele, former CBN governor, who is facing multiple prosecution for a cocktail of alleged corruption cases.

Egbulefu is of the Public Affairs Department of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC