By Tony Egbulefu
Ensuring that recovered funds and other assets are not rechanneled into private use or mismanaged by beneficiary entities is a challenge that the Executive Chairman of Economics and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede is confronting with singlehandedness. Achieving this goal falls well within the policy objectives of his administration, which he evolved right upon assumption of office in October 2023.
All too often, funds recovered from corrupt individuals and entities would simply redisappear once they are returned to the state or its establishments. This ugly circle is nourished by lack of robust monitoring mechanisms on how these monies are reapplied.
Seeing to it that recovered assets are deployed for public good is the terminal of EFCC’s asset recovery efforts under Olukoyede, knowing that the assets can be looted again at just the very point he took his eyes off the ball.
By maintaining such vigilance, robust oversight and accountability measures, the EFCC chairman seeks to guarantee that the hard-won resources are channeled towards public services, infrastructure development, social programmes, and other initiatives that uplift people and communities.
The implementation of systems that track the application of recovered funds and subjecting their use to scrutiny generally involves regular and detailed reporting and disclosure by individuals and entities as well as audits by the Commission.
Under Olukoyede, these measures are observed to the letter between the EFCC and benefactor entities of the Commission’s asset recovery efforts. This, for starters, has been the rule of engagement between the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC and the EFCC in the past one and half years, following a massive recovery of looted funds and their handover to the NDDC by the Commission.
A strict oversight by the EFCC on the applications of the recovered funds by the Samuel Ogbuku leadership of the NDDC, ensured that they were put into the execution of projects, needful to the people. The transparency and accountability contents in the projects’ implementation, earned them Olukoyede’s presence for good measure at their commissioning in Bayelsa State, few days ago.
Though not strictly within the mandate of the Chairman to commission projects, he declared at the event that his participation was a demonstration of the fact that “we can make anti-corruption work in Nigeria.”
By way of reporting to the Commission, Olukoyede disclosed at the event in Otuokpoti, Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State that the NDDC Managing Director, always filled him in on the progress of the projects. “Sam always called me, saying we are at this stage of completion of this project. We have attained this milestone, we have attained this level,” he said. Speaking further, Olukoyede said, “We have had many NDDC MDs in the past but I tell you this is a product of the leadership of our President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Under this President, NDDC is working. Under this President, good governance is being delivered. Under this President, anti corruption is working. For the first time in the history of this country we recovered the biggest real estate, being a product of crime in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, it’s a world record. The essence of the fight against corruption is not to jail people. It is for it to impact the lives of Nigerians. So it is my delight, my joy to be part of the transformational agenda of the NDDC. To be part of this life-transforming projects to the people of Niger Delta, people of Bayelsa State, people of Ogbia Local Government area of Bayelsa and particularly to the people of Otuokpoti. Could you have imagined somebody like me coming to sit down with the MD of NDDC, three or four years ago? It wouldn’t have been a possibility,” he said.
Shedding more light on why he zealously guard recovered assets and ensure their deployment for the good of the people on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 in Kachia, Southern Kaduna, he delightfully announced that the money the EFCC recovered for NDDC “was used specifically for those projects,” adding that “the EFCC monitored their execution and they were delivered within one and a half years. So I had to go to Bayelsa to commission the projects to prove to Nigerians that this is the benefit of the fight against corruption in Nigeria. That this is proceeds of crime that was applied for the benefit of the people. That is the message we are trying to put across.”
Olukoyede had gone to Kachia to inspect the Federal University of Applied Sciences. The school, formerly Nok University was finally forfeited to the federal government on Friday, June 7, 2024 on the orders of Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, following an application for a final forfeiture of the university by the EFCC, pursuant to Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and Section 44(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Having earlier secured an interim forfeiture of the school, the Commission filed for the final forfeiture order after diligently establishing that the owner, one Anthony Hassan, a former Director of Finance and Accounts in the Federal Ministry of Health, established it with proceeds of unlawful activities. Physical assets of the forfeited school include a Senate building, ICT building, Faculty of Medicine building, Science Deanery building, two academic buildings , a Faculty Hall and others.
Upon the formal takeover of the university on February 12, 2025, the federal government renamed it Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia.
Addressing dignitaries, community leaders, and stakeholders at the premises of the university, Olukoyede stated that the inspection visit was in reinforcement of the transparency and accountability of President Tinubu’s administration, and reaffirmed that the EFCC will continue to ensure that recovered assets will not only be safe-guarded but utilized for the benefit of the people.
“Good governance is a possibility in Nigeria. The President has provided leadership. He has given the marching order. Recovered assets will not be allowed to be looted again because Nigerians deserve to enjoy the benefits of recovered proceeds of crime. The essence of government and the essence of the fight against corruption is not for us to recover, only for some people to reloot. This property has been delivered and given back to the people and we will always ensure that recovered assets are deployed for public good.
“What we are seeing here is an edifice. Most universities in Nigeria don’t have these types of facilities. So, my advice is that we need to take this as our own, protect it, preserve it, so that generations after us will benefit from it. Under this regime, good governance is a reality. We are showing Nigerians real proof. My visit is to confirm that the property has been deployed for the exact purpose the President approved.”
In Kachia, he reiterated that the aim of the fight against corruption is for the people to take advantage of what has been taken away from them. “We give them back to the people. And the EFCC under my leadership, ensures that the fight against corruption does not end with the recovery of stolen funds. Monitoring their use is an essential component of the Commission’s asset recovery efforts under my watch. Their proper application is the end of the anti-corruption fight for me. We will not recover and some people will go behind and reloot them. No! This new university is the proceeds of crime that is being applied for the benefit of the people.”
•ACE11, Tony Egbulefu is of the Media and Publicity Unit of the EFCC
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