The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has formally changed its approach in the fight against financial crimes, from tracing stolen funds after the fact to preventing suspicious transactions just before the money vanishes.
The Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during an interactive session with newsmen to mark his third year at the helm of the commission.
Rather than waiting for complex criminal cases to take years to resolve while assets disappear, the EFCC boss said the agency has set up a special unit, called the Fraud Risk Assessment and Control Department (FRAC), to track, flag and freeze suspicious accounts within 72 hours.
Olukoyede, explaining the reason for the sudden change in approach, queried why it is always the public purse that is emptied before any action is taken.
“Why do we have to wait for money to be stolen? We intervene and freeze when we see suspicious money flows. Pending 72 hours, he asked: “We ask where is this money going?
He cited instances of public funds being quickly wired from local government accounts to corporate accounts and then ending up in cryptocurrency wallets within 24 hours.
Olukoyede regretted that corrupt public officials in the country now recruit young tech-savvy persons to convert the looted public funds into virtual assets, thus making recovery difficult.
“By pressing a button, you can collapse the whole banking industry in Nigeria. “Most of the data we are investigating now, you can’t trace tangible assets to them,” he said.
Olukoyede disclosed that in an attempt to curb the rising trend of virtual asset laundering, about 40 digital asset platforms have been licensed in Nigeria and that the EFCC now has the technical capacity to trace registered wallets.
The commission also collaborated with security agencies to establish a national confiscation wallet for all confiscated cryptocurrencies, with presidential consent.
“One of the problems we used to have was where do you put the confiscated virtual assets? We put them into a national wallet today,” Olukoyede added.
On legal tactics, the EFCC boss said the agency is concentrating on civil asset forfeiture under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, rather than getting itself entangled in endless criminal litigation.
“This is faster and more swift than a criminal trial. “We don’t have to wait 10, 15 years when witnesses die and assets are dissipated,” he said.
The commission can also use the civil forfeiture process, filing a direct suit against the suspicious asset itself, putting the onus on anyone claiming ownership to explain the genuine source of the money used to acquire it. This approach has already yielded big results in a number of high-profile cases involving former public officeholders,” he added.
Olukoyede said the commission no longer directly manages forfeited properties, strictly adhering to the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) 2022 to clear the air on the handling of seized items.
Instead, a specialized Process and Proceeds Management (PCM) directorate now assigns experts, estate managers for real estate, stock market professionals for financial assets and broadcast experts for media outfits, to run the properties efficiently.
He also said that fast depreciating properties which are caught up in court litigation are being auctioned off and the proceeds are being deposited into secure escrow accounts pending final judicial determination.
The EFCC boss also revealed that new management teams have been put in place at the high-profile hotels recently forfeited in Lagos, while commercial banks have been instructed to remit all operational income directly to the commission.
Olukoyede closed with a call to the media and civil society organizations to resume their role as active watchdogs, stressing that systemic leak-blocking and institutional reforms are far more effective than law enforcement alone.
“Law enforcement is not the most efficient system. “It is the policy regime, institutional reforms that seal leakages,” the EFCC Chairman said.
