EFCC chair Ola Olukoyede has described asset recovery as vital in the fight against economic and financial crimes and a major disincentive against corrupt practices, revealing that the anti-graft agency recovered N250 billion in cash, tens of millions of dollars, tens of millions of pounds sterling and other currencies.

Mr Olukoyede stated this when House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes members paid an oversight visit to the EFCC headquarters on Tuesday in Abuja.

“If you understand the intricacies involved in financial crimes investigation and prosecution, you will discover that to recover one billion naira is war. So, I told my people that the moment we start an investigation, we must also start asset tracing because asset recovery is pivotal in the anti-corruption fight.

“If you allow the corrupt or those that you are investigating to have access to the proceeds of their crime, they will fight you with it. So, one of the ways to weaken them is to deprive them of the proceeds of their crime. 

“So, our modus operandi has changed tremendously. The moment we begin an investigation, we begin asset tracing. That was what helped us to make our recoveries,” Mr Olukoyede said.

He pointed out that no fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes could be effective if it did not energize the economy.

The EFCC boss said, “So, we have embarked on these since October last year with the help of my management team and the entire EFCC staff, and I am happy to announce to you that between October 2023 and October this year, we were able to recover about N250 billion in cash, tens of millions of dollars, tens of millions of pounds sterling and other currencies.”

He explained that the EFCC equally put up a command performance in the area of convictions, amassing about 3,500 convictions from October 18, 2023, to October 18, 2024.

“In the area of convictions, we have done over 3,000, and we also want to re-orientate your minds that it is not only Yahoo Yahoo. We have evidence. We have many high-profile cases in which we secured convictions.

”I wish to remind everyone that this issue of Yahoo Yahoo thing that some people are treating with kid gloves is a crime that costs the nation over $500,000 in one year, and that is what some people are joking about. We expect all these because it is obvious that when you fight corruption, corruption will fight back,” stated Mr Olukoyede.

Mr Olukoyede noted that apart from the over 3,000 convictions, the EFCC filed several court cases. 

In the last one year, over 17,000 petitions were received and “right now, we are investigating over 20,000 cases,” said the anti-graft agency boss.

“Between October 2023 and now, we have opened new case files of over 4,800,” he said.

(NAN)