Good moves by the EFCC

RECENTLY in Abuja, while meeting with media executives and other journalists, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) gave an account of its stewardship to the Nigerian people. Its Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, announced that the commission had secured 10,872 convictions and recovered N1.23 trillion, $684.48 million, £373,906 and €9.34 million in its 34-month anti-corruption campaign. Going further, Olukoyede disclosed that the EFCC under him had investigated 39,615 cases, filed 14,476 cases in court, and received 49,673 petitions between October 2023 and July 2026.

The chairman made these disclosures during the presentation of his three-year stewardship report at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja. Breaking down the achievements, he said the commission achieved a 75.1 percent conviction-to-filing ratio, with 1,370 convictions secured from 1,889 cases filed in the first half of 2026 alone. The EFCC chairman, however, acknowledged that the war against economic and financial crimes was not over. As he noted, there are many battles left to fight and conquests that still feel insurmountable. Olukoyede warned Nigerians that emerging threats of cybercrime, financial fraud, virtual assets, and illicit financial flows remain huge hurdles. He attributed this to the increasingly sophisticated nature of these crimes in the modern world.

Olukoyede also earned high marks for organisational accountability when he disclosed that the commission was undergoing an internal purge. According to him, more than 40 EFCC personnel had received dismissal letters in the past two and a half years. The chairman said these “bad eggs” were sacked over alleged involvement in corruption and financial malfeasance that threatened the image of the commission. The EFCC chairman revealed that more than five of the dismissed personnel were currently facing prosecution. He added that the case files of other staff members found to have been involved in image-tarnishing acts, but not yet prosecuted, were being prepared for prosecution. He stated that this internal fumigation exercise was part of efforts to ensure that EFCC personnel uphold the highest standards of integrity in investigating and prosecuting corruption cases.

“In the past two and a half to three years of my service, I have asked them to dismiss over 40 members of staff on account of corruption and financial malpractice. More than five of them are being prosecuted at the moment. You can follow those cases in court; they are public knowledge,” Olukoyede said. In furtherance of this cleanup, the EFCC chairman disclosed that the commission had introduced measures aimed at strengthening accountability among its personnel. Chief among them, he said, was the articulation of a gift policy to regulate the acceptance and declaration of gifts by staff members.

By all standards, Chairman Olukoyede deserves kudos for this interface with the Nigerian people. This act of self-accountability is novel for an EFCC that has existed for over two decades. With this, Olukoyede has demonstrated responsibility not only to his employers but to the Nigerian people. It is not only impressive; it is the way to go — a path seldom trodden in the past. The announcement of a high number of convictions, as well as the recovery of huge sums from offenders in high and low places, is also commendable. It is salutary that the EFCC turned the searchlight inward on its own people, many of whom the public had accused of corruption and of tarnishing the commission’s image. The announcement of an internal mechanism to purge corrupt staff is praiseworthy. We urge the commission to devise methods to sustain the tempo. Fighting corruption in a society like Nigeria is indeed a herculean task. The EFCC deserves kudos for these efforts.

The commission, however, needs to shed light on the method used to determine the accuracy of the recovered funds. In other words, who audited the account presented to the public to ascertain that the figures represent the actual sums recovered? We ask this because, in the past, there had been allegations of re-looting of looted funds. This raises questions about how accurate the figures presented by the EFCC chairman truly are. Such doubts are understandable in a Nigeria where trust in government and its agencies is low. Under such an atmosphere, figures are routinely doubted because of the cancerous nature of corruption. The doubts are also fuelled by people’s negative experiences with government agencies in the past. The EFCC therefore needs to go beyond sharing these figures and establish their authenticity in the minds of Nigerians. Apart from the above, we commend the EFCC chairman’s engagement in communicating the organisation’s journey to Nigerians, and the commission’s novel act of purging itself of bad eggs.

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Lastly, we urge the commission not to rest on its oars. The battle is far from won. The EFCC should also address concerns Nigerians have raised about its perceived unfair handling of corruption cases involving members of the ruling party. Today, certain “big people” in Nigeria, who were known to be almost in penury before entering government, are now stupendously rich, sometimes even wealthier than the state. The EFCC should keep such people on its radar.