Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that the commission secured the forfeiture of an aircraft allegedly linked to a member of a committee monitoring a power project in Nigeria who was accused of collecting about $30 million in bribes.
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Olukoyede made the disclosure on Wednesday while speaking at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.
According to him, the aircraft was recovered through the EFCC’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture process and has since been added to Nigeria’s presidential air fleet.
“This aircraft was forfeited by someone who was supposed to be a member of monitoring committee of a power project in Nigeria. We discovered he collected a bribe of about $30 million in Nigeria,” Olukoyede said.
“He forfeited that about three months ago and it has been added to the presidential air fleet at the moment.”
The EFCC chairman said the commission secured the forfeiture within about two months of approaching the court.
He explained that Nigerian law empowers the commission to seek the forfeiture of assets suspected to represent proceeds of crime even before a criminal conviction is secured.
Olukoyede compared the mechanism to similar asset recovery frameworks operating in countries such as Australia and Canada.
“We have similar to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada that empowers us to apply the forfeiture to proceeds of what is suspected to be proceeds of crime,” he said.
He explained that the process begins with an ex parte application to a High Court based on what he described as probable suspicion that an asset constitutes proceeds of crime.
“You apply ex parte to the High Court upon a probable suspicion of the proceeds of crime,” he stated.
The EFCC chairman cited the aircraft case as one example of the commission’s increasing use of asset tracing and non-conviction-based forfeiture to recover property suspected to have been acquired through financial crimes.
Olukoyede further disclosed that over the past three years, the commission had recovered and forfeited to the Federal Government cash and assets valued at more than $500 million.
He also referred to a property containing about 753 housing units which, according to him, was forfeited in connection with a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria who is facing criminal charges in three courts.
“That property contains about 753 housing units we forfeited from an erstwhile governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. We have criminal charges against him in about three courts,” Olukoyede said.
The EFCC chairman did not name the former CBN governor in the remarks provided, and the forfeiture itself does not amount to a conviction on the pending criminal charges.
Olukoyede also spoke about an investigation into former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, saying the commission had traced 57 properties allegedly linked to him following an investigation into suspected abuse of office.
“Sometimes last year, I opened investigations upon reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office by the immediate past attorney-general of Nigeria,” he said.
“We discovered that within eight years of his being in office, we were able to trace about 57 such properties to him. We’ve been able to forfeit about 48.”
The claims against Malami remain allegations arising from the EFCC’s investigation and asset recovery proceedings and should not be treated as a finding of criminal guilt.
Olukoyede said the commission’s ability to successfully pursue forfeiture cases depends heavily on effective asset tracing, credible intelligence and cooperation from the judiciary.
He also called for stronger protection for whistleblowers, arguing that individuals who provide credible information leading to the recovery of stolen Nigerian assets should be encouraged and protected.
According to him, whistleblowers whose information results in successful recoveries may receive between 2.5 per cent and five per cent of recovered assets.
“The citizens must be encouraged with your whistleblower protection,” he said.
“If any of you is privy to where Nigerian asset is stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you. Between 2.5 and 5 percent is going to go back to you upon recovery.”
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