The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has offered whistleblowers between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of recovered stolen Nigerian assets for information that leads to the recovery of such assets held abroad.
Olukoyede disclosed this on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.
The EFCC chairman said the ability of investigators to trace suspected illicit assets, cooperation from the judiciary and access to credible intelligence were key factors contributing to the commission’s success in securing non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
He also described the EFCC’s investigators as among the best in the world.
Olukoyede revealed that the EFCC had secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Federal Government within the past three years.
“Within three years of my assumption of office, we’ve been able to forfeit both cash and assets worth over half a billion dollars to the government.”
He said the recoveries demonstrated the commission’s growing capacity to trace and recover proceeds suspected to have been derived from criminal activities.
Olukoyede said the EFCC is constitutionally empowered to seek the forfeiture of suspected proceeds of crime.
According to him, the process begins with the commission obtaining an order from the High Court.
He noted that the approach is similar to practices in countries including Australia and Canada, where authorities can pursue the forfeiture of suspected illicit assets through judicial processes.
