EFCC offers 5% reward for tips on stolen Nigerian assets abroad – Olukoyede

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is incentivizing whistleblowers with a reward of 2.5% to 5% of recovered stolen assets held abroad. EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede announced this initiative while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.

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The citizens must be encouraged with your whistleblower protection. If any of you is privy to where a Nigerian asset is stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you. Between 2.5 and 5 per cent is going to go back to you upon recovery.

Olukoyede emphasized that the EFCC possesses "some of the best investigators around the world" and highlighted the significant role of judicial cooperation and credible intelligence in tracing and forfeiting assets. He assured participants from other countries about the importance of whistleblower protection, stating, "If any of you is privy to where a Nigerian asset is stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you. Between 2.5 and 5 per cent is going to go back to you upon recovery."

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The EFCC has “some of the best investigators around the world.”

He further revealed that the EFCC has successfully forfeited over $500 million in cash and assets to the Federal Government within the last three years. Olukoyede cited forfeiture cases involving a former Chairman of the Central Bank of Nigeria and an ex-Attorney-General of the Federation as examples of the agency's successes.

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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.

The EFCC chairman explained that the agency operates under a constitutional mandate to seek forfeiture of suspected crime proceeds, starting with obtaining an order from the High Court. He noted that this process is similar to procedures in Australia and Canada, involving ex parte applications to the High Court based on probable suspicion. Olukoyede recounted an instance where the agency forfeited an aircraft from an individual involved in a $30 million bribe, which has since been added to the presidential air fleet. Additionally, he mentioned the forfeiture of a property containing approximately 753 housing units from a former CBN chairman.

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We have something 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.