EFCC Investigates 18 States for Alleged Fund Mismanagement

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed that around 18 states are currently under investigation for alleged mismanagement of public funds. Wilson Uwujaren, the commission's Director of Public Affairs, disclosed this during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, emphasizing that naming the states involved could jeopardize the ongoing probes.

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Like we said in the statement, there are about 18 other states that we have ongoing investigations.

Uwujaren stated that the commission's actions are guided by law and are not targeted at any specific administration. He explained that the restriction placed on an Osun State government account was one of several similar measures taken or being prepared against state governments. He confirmed that the number of states under investigation is in the double digits, but he declined to provide specific names, citing the need to protect the integrity of the investigations.

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Not running away per se, but not to jeopardise the investigation that is currently ongoing.

He further elaborated on the commission's intervention in Edo State prior to the current governor's tenure. The EFCC had previously restricted the state government's account upon detecting suspicious fund movements, successfully preserving $12 billion which, he noted, provided resources for the current government upon taking office. Uwujaren also addressed the Ekiti State election, explaining that the EFCC did not intervene in the same manner because the circumstances and available intelligence differed from those in Osun.

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So this is not targeted at any particular government. We are simply doing our work under the law.

The EFCC's actions are aimed at ensuring accountability and preventing the misappropriation of public funds. Uwujaren reiterated that only one statutory account in Osun State was temporarily restricted, allowing the state government continued access to its other accounts. The commission's interventions are presented as a necessary part of its mandate to combat financial crimes and corruption across the country.

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If you talk about what happened in Ekiti, we didn’t have any reason to intervene the way we are intervening now. And you don’t have access to the information that we have access to.