Nigeria needs laws to tackle unexplained wealth, says Olukoyede

Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says the country needs legislation to address unexplained wealth to effectively fight corruption.

According to a statement issued on Friday, the EFCC boss spoke at an event in Mowe, Ogun state.

He was represented at the event by Adebayo Adeniyi, EFCC Abuja zonal commander.

Olukoyede said while Nigeria has yet to enact laws to address unexplained wealth, other countries have embraced regulations to curtail the issue.

He said the absence of laws against unexplained wealth had forced the anti-graft agency to rely on the “provisions of Section 7 of its Establishment Act” to investigate assets with corruption linkage.

“The issue of unexplained wealth is not a local issue. There are jurisdictional legislations across the world to tackle it. Till date, countries of the world are faced with criminalities emanating from money laundering practices and illicit funds,” Olukoyede said.

“This circumstance led to the promulgation of Unexplained Wealth Orders, UWOs that came into force in 2018. Several countries, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Mauritius and African countries like Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, have come up with UWO. Nigeria is yet to come up with a national legislation on it,”

“In Nigeria today, unexplained wealth has become a practical means of tracing, identifying, investigating and prosecuting corruption cases. As an anti-graft agency, suspects of any economic and financial crimes are usually required to declare their assets in the course of investigation.

“The basis for this is to properly establish their true asset base and their linkage or otherwise to any act of corruption. Owing to the absence of a legislation on the issue of unexplained wealth, the EFCC continues to rely on provisions of Section 7 of its Establishment Act to handle it.”

Olukoyede said treasury looters would have little cover if the issues of unexplained wealth were tackled more seriously across the world.