The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has offered whistleblowers between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of recovered assets for credible information leading to the recovery of funds and properties allegedly taken abroad by corrupt Nigerians. NigerianNews Updates
EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede announced the incentive while speaking at the 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Olukoyede urged anyone with credible information about Nigerian assets suspected to be proceeds of corruption anywhere in the world to approach the commission, promising that successful whistleblowers would receive a financial reward after recovery. “That is an incentive we have put in place to encourage people to come forward to give information about stolen assets,” he said.
According to the EFCC chairman, the reward could potentially turn credible whistleblowers into millionaires depending on the value of assets recovered from their information. “You never know if you give any information here, some of you may leave this place, multi-millionaire in your lifetime,” Olukoyede told participants.
He said the initiative was designed to strengthen the EFCC’s access to intelligence that could help trace assets moved out of Nigeria through illicit means. Olukoyede also disclosed that the commission had secured the forfeiture of more than $500 million in cash and assets to the Federal Government during his first three years in office.
He attributed the recoveries to the professionalism of EFCC investigators, judicial support and access to credible intelligence. The EFCC chairman further highlighted Nigeria’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture framework, which allows authorities to pursue suspected proceeds of crime without necessarily waiting for a criminal conviction. NigerianNews Updates
He said the system was comparable to mechanisms used in countries such as Australia and Canada and had enabled the government to pursue the forfeiture of assets including an aircraft, a university, estates and houses allegedly acquired with proceeds of crime. Olukoyede cited the recovery of 752 housing units linked to former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele.
He also discussed the investigation involving former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), saying investigators traced 57 properties to him and had secured the forfeiture of 48.
“Sometimes last year, I opened investigations upon reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office by the immediate past Attorney-General of Nigeria,” he said.