The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has revealed that no fewer than 18 states across Nigeria are currently being investigated over alleged mismanagement of public funds.
The disclosure was made on Thursday by the agency’s Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, during an interview on Arise Television. While confirming the investigations, he declined to identify the affected states, explaining that doing so could compromise ongoing inquiries.
Uwujaren spoke while addressing questions about the commission’s recent decision to place a temporary restriction on one of the Osun State Government’s accounts. He explained that the move was not unique to Osun, noting that the commission had taken similar steps in other cases where suspicious financial transactions were detected.
Confirming that multiple state governments are under the EFCC’s watch, Uwujaren said, “Like we said in the statement, there are about 18 other states that we have ongoing investigations.”
However, he refused to disclose their identities.
“I don’t want to start mentioning those states by name now,” he said.
When asked why the commission was withholding the names, Uwujaren maintained that revealing them at this stage could affect the investigations.
“Not running away per se, but not to jeopardise the investigation that is currently ongoing,” he said.
He recalled that the EFCC had previously frozen an Edo State Government account before Governor Monday Okpebholo assumed office after suspicious movements of funds were detected.
“Before, during the Edo State government, the Edo State election, before the coming of Governor Okpebholo, EFCC also took actions to restrict the account of that state government when we saw that funds were being moved to suspicious accounts.
“And we were able to preserve $12 billion for them. That is why the current government was able to come on board and have resources to work,” he said.
Uwujaren stressed that the anti-graft agency’s actions were driven solely by its statutory responsibilities.
“So this is not targeted at any particular government. We are simply doing our work under the law,” he added.
Responding to questions about why similar action was not taken during the Ekiti governorship election, he said the situations were not comparable because the commission acts on intelligence available to it.
“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,” he said.
Uwujaren also clarified that the EFCC only placed a temporary restriction on one statutory account belonging to the Osun State Government, adding that the state still has access to its other bank accounts.
“We only targeted one statutory account, which is restricted, temporary restriction on that account. And it does not stop the government from operating other accounts that they have. It’s only one account that is frozen for now,” he explained.
He noted that the commission has a legal 72-hour window to either obtain a court order extending the restriction or remove it.
“We have a 72 hours window to obtain a court order, which the commission is at liberty to do.
“We have not exhausted that window, 72 hours, within which we either obtain a court order to continue to freeze it or lift the restriction on the other hand,” he said.
On the Osun State Government’s decision to challenge the restriction in court, Uwujaren said the government has every right to seek legal redress.
“It’s within their right to take that decision today. If we think they are right to take that decision, we are also working on what we should do as an agency,” he said.
He further stated that the commission’s powers to temporarily restrict suspicious accounts are backed by the EFCC Act and the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2022.
Uwujaren also disclosed that the investigation involving Osun State had been ongoing since March, with several government officials already questioned as part of the probe.
“But as it is now, I want to restate the fact that the Osun State case didn’t start today. It started way back in March. And a number of officials from that state have been interviewed in course of this investigation. So it didn’t just begin now,” he said.
The EFCC’s revelation suggests that investigations into the financial activities of several state governments are ongoing, even as public attention remains focused on the controversy surrounding the temporary restriction placed on Osun State’s account.
