The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has raised alarm over a disturbing new method allegedly used by some Nigerian politicians to evade anti-graft scrutiny — declaring assets they do not yet own before assuming public office.
Olukoyede, speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the launch of a virtual tool on the code of conduct for public officers, described the practice as “anticipatory looting” — a premeditated move to legitimise assets that will be acquired with stolen public funds.
The event was organised by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in collaboration with the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR).
According to the EFCC boss, recent investigations revealed cases where politically exposed persons submitted false asset declaration forms, listing multi-billion-naira properties they planned to purchase while in office.
“We discovered the criminally smart way some of our leaders operate,” Olukoyede said. “They declare what they intend to acquire even before being sworn in. This way, when they eventually buy it with looted funds, it looks legitimate on paper.”
He narrated a case in which a public official declared ownership of a property valued at over N3 billion that did not yet exist at the time of declaration. The address provided in the CCB form did not match the actual location of the property, prompting further investigation.
Further checks revealed that the official had even registered the property at the land registry and designed the mansion before assuming office.
“Before taking the oath of office, this person was already thinking of what to steal and how to spend it,” Olukoyede lamented.
The EFCC chairman warned that such tactics undermine the country’s anti-corruption framework and called for stricter monitoring of asset declaration processes to prevent the abuse of the Code of Conduct Bureau’s system.
He urged Nigerians to demand greater accountability from leaders, stressing that the fight against corruption will only succeed if the loopholes exploited by public officials are permanently closed.
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