Daud Olatunji
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has offered whistleblowers worldwide financial rewards of between 2.5 per cent and five per cent for credible information leading to the recovery of Nigerian assets stolen and hidden abroad.
The EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this on Wednesday while speaking at an international economic crime symposium in Cambridge.
Olukoyede urged individuals with credible information on illicitly acquired Nigerian assets concealed in foreign jurisdictions to come forward, saying successful whistleblowers could receive substantial financial rewards under the commission’s incentive scheme.
According to him, the reward is intended to encourage the flow of actionable intelligence that can help investigators trace and recover proceeds of corruption and other financial crimes moved across international borders.
He said the commission had recovered and secured forfeiture of cash and assets valued at more than $500m to the Nigerian government in less than three years under his leadership.
The EFCC boss also highlighted Nigeria’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture framework, which allows the commission to pursue the forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction.
He said the mechanism, which has similarities with systems operated in countries such as Australia and Canada, had strengthened the country’s ability to recover assets linked to suspected financial crimes.
Olukoyede cited the recovery of 752 housing units linked to former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, as well as the forfeiture of 48 out of 57 properties traced to former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
The EFCC chairman said the commission’s asset recovery efforts had also extended to high-value properties and other assets, including aircraft, estates, houses and educational institutions allegedly linked to proceeds of crime.
He stressed that successful recovery of illicit assets required more than domestic investigations, noting that criminals increasingly move suspected proceeds across jurisdictions to conceal their origins and ownership.
Olukoyede called for stronger international cooperation, intelligence sharing and improved investigative capacity to enable law enforcement agencies to follow the money across borders.
He said the whistleblower incentive was therefore part of a broader strategy to strengthen intelligence gathering and ensure that stolen Nigerian wealth hidden overseas could be identified and recovered.
The EFCC has intensified its asset recovery campaign in recent years, with foreign cooperation increasingly becoming central to efforts to trace suspected proceeds of corruption and other financial crimes.
The commission’s latest offer effectively opens another channel for Nigerians and other individuals with credible information to assist ongoing efforts to bring illicitly acquired assets back to the country.
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