The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, announced that the commission had endorsed plans to investigate over 3,000 financial crime cases.
At the 20th-anniversary lecture of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda Resources Centre, held in Lagos on Saturday, Olukoyede disclosed these findings.
He noted that among the over 5,000 petitions received by the agency from various groups and Nigerians, approximately 3,000 cases had been approved for investigation.
Olukoyede highlighted that within less than four months since assuming office, the agency had recovered over ₦60bn and $10m. He emphasized that the EFCC had implemented innovative measures to prevent or reduce the embezzlement of public funds and other financial crimes.
The EFCC boss underscored the importance of collective responsibility from every Nigerian in advancing the nation and combating corruption. He reiterated his commitment to leveraging the anti-corruption campaign to invigorate the Nigerian economy.
He added, “When we set out to investigate. People see it as a fight between EFCC and the rest of us. It should not be so. How much will the EFCC do?
“How much will ICPC do with its staff strength? I have less than 4,800 staff. I am talking of an agency that is serving people who are over 150 million.
“All we have to do is investigate and present the facts before the court. I will not be the one to give judgement. That is where we have collective responsibility. When you see something, you say something
“The issue is we are working as if we are not working. Upon my assumption of office between then and now, I have received over 5,000 petitions. I am not talking of just the one we received, but the one that we have checked and discovered that there was substance in it. That is just for one agency, EFCC.
“As I am talking to you I have approved the investigation of over 3,000 cases in less than four months, but what is our capacity, how many staff do we have? What resources do I have access to?
“In less than four months, we secured convictions of 700 and recovered over 60 billion naira, over 10 million dollars.
“If I am able to recover over 60 billion naira in less than 100 days, you can imagine how much has been stolen.
“I can tell you that for the billion that has been recovered, trillion has been stolen.”
Regarding his stance, Olanrewaju Suraju, the Chairman of HEDA, acknowledged the formidable nature of the anti-corruption battle.
He encouraged all Nigerians to make contributions within their respective spheres and domains to combat corruption.