By Ozegbe Ogokuni
Change, whether of positive or negative outcome is a constant phenomenon in life, and doesn’t happen without its attendant consequences. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is currently feeling the effects of two agonizing incidents: one on the 17 January, 2025 in Awka, the Anambra State capital, where its gallant officer, Aminu Sahabi Salisu was heartlessly gunned down by a suspected criminal who was visited by a team of EFCC Operatives; the second being the discovery on Monday, 27 January, 2025 of the lifeless body of gallant Officer, Remedy Yange lying on a Lagos street, and whose death is being investigated.
These shocking deaths may only be indicative of the sacrifices that the Commission has to pay for its unprecedented achievements in tackling graft headlong. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004 empowers the Commission to prevent, investigate, prosecute and penalize the commission of all economic and financial crimes in the Country.
Preventive crime bursting has seen the EFCC act on intelligence to thwart economic and financial crimes. A recent case is the arrest of a criminal syndicate that specializes in dispossessing Abuja property owners of their land through falsification of title documents. Four of such title documents on lands with a cumulative value of one billion Naira were returned to their owners on Tuesday, 28 January, 2025 by the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede.
It is also on record that the Commission thwarted the activities of some vote buyers in recently conducted off-cycle elections in the country. Intelligence gathering, being a potent tool in modern crime fighting, has been extensively deployed by Olukoyede’s EFCC to burst many money laundering and internet fraud schemes. That was the case late last year when 792 suspects were arrested, which included 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, 2 Kharzartans, 1 Pakistani, and 1 Indonesian in a seven- storey edifice known as ‘Big Leaf Building’ on No 7 Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. It has become common knowledge that foreigners are using Nigerians and the Country as a base to scam the global community. According to Olukoyede, “Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises. But, as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria.” This crime preventive operations, including the public sensitisation through the EFCC Radio, 97.3 FM have undoubtedly rekindled institutional consciousness about integrity as many officials and businesses are now circumspect and sensitive in their actions.
The investigative operations of the EFCC have remarkably improved. Several thousands of investigative cases have resulted in prosecutions, convictions and recovery of assets and other proceeds of crime. Records in the public space clearly indicate that the EFCC Olukoyede has prosecuted over 6245 cases and secured more than 3455 convictions. This feat may be attributed to many factors, particularly the legal and operational reforms and the restructuring of Zonal offices. Among the politically exposed persons at the receiving end of EFCC investigations and prosecutions are: former Govs Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Willie Obiano of Anambra State, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, Gabriel Suswan of Benue State, among others. We can’t be in haste to slide the case of Godwin Emefiele, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from Delta State, and the former Minister, Charles Chukwuemeka Ugwuh of Imo State.
The internal cleansing of the Commission that led to the dismissal of 27 staff members for gross misconduct, and the arrest and detention of another 10 EFCC Staff members suspected of stealing, have had a deterrent effect of dissuading other staff from toeing a similar path. This exercise indicate that the EFCC is determined to remain above board in matters of integrity.
It will be interesting to understand how the operational successes of the EFCC have impacted governance and businesses as well as private individuals. For the political class, the refrain is that the fear of the EFCC is the beginning of political wisdom because no matter how far a suspect runs, the mantra of the Commission is that they will get you any time anywhere. Yahaya Bello can testify to this! Evidently, it is no longer business as usual for the political class as a new culture of transparency is unfolding. This has seemingly renewed corporate and institutional integrity as we have seen with the Aviation sector, and the Nigerian Immigration Service in the issuance of passports, and so is the case with some other public establishments.
Accountability by public officials would soon become the norm given the example demonstrated by the EFCC with its action against its own personnel. It is therefore apt to say that the EFCC under Olukoyede is having a transformational impact in terms of institutional transparency and accountability in Nigeria.
However, it must be pointed out that the EFCC needs to do more to ensure that its Operatives wear body protection accoutrements and deploy state-of-the-art technological equipment in their operations. This will help to avert unnecessary loss of lives.
In the same vein, the Government is fervently urged to channel more funding to the EFCC for acquisition of technological equipment, manpower training and specialized recruitments to enable the Commission to sustain and upgrade its operations for the dynamic fight against economic and financial crimes that is constantly evolving in sophistication.
| Ogokuni, a lawyer is also a crime and political writer from Abbi, Delta State (ogokuni2@gmail.com)