The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has called on whistleblowers across the world to provide useful and actionable intelligence to the Commission on monetary and non-monetary assets allegedly stashed abroad by corrupt Nigerians.
He made the call on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.
According to him, anyone with credible information on the whereabouts of Nigerian assets taken or concealed abroad could come forward to assist the country in recovering them.
He said such whistleblowers would be eligible for financial rewards under the Commission’s incentive arrangement.
“I welcome all of you to the world of whistleblowing. If any one of you is privy to where Nigerian assets are stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you; between 2.5% and 5%, it’s going to go back to you upon recovery. That is an incentive we have put in place to encourage people to come forward to give information about stolen assets. You never can tell; if you give any information here, some of you may leave this place multi-millionaires in your lifetime,” he said.
The EFCC Chairman, who received applause from the audience, noted that in less than three years of his assumption of office, the Commission had secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than half a billion dollars to the Nigerian government.
“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.
Olukoyede attributed the Commission’s asset recovery successes to the resourcefulness and professionalism of its investigators, a proactive judiciary and access to credible intelligence.
He also linked Nigeria’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture framework to similar provisions in countries such as Australia and Canada.
The framework, he explained, enables the Commission to seek the forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction.
“We have similar to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada that empowers us to apply for the forfeiture of proceeds of what is suspected to be proceeds of crime,” he said.
Through the approach, the EFCC Chairman told the audience that aircraft, a university, estates and houses suspected to be proceeds of crime had been forfeited to the government.
He particularly mentioned the 753 housing units recovered from a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, as well as the investigation of former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, which resulted in the final forfeiture of 48 of 57 properties traced to him.
“Sometimes last year, I opened investigations upon reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office by the immediate past Attorney-General of Nigeria. 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,” he said.
The 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime, holding in Cambridge, is an annual event that brings together anti-corruption experts and professionals from across the world. Olukoyede’s presentation came on the third day of the week-long event.
