Under the leadership of Ola Olukoyede, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered over N200 billion and achieved approximately 3,000 convictions in a single year.
President Bola Tinubu appointed Olukoyede as the chairman of the anti-corruption agency in October 2023.
Since his appointment, EFCC spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren has reported that the commission has made significant progress in the fight against corruption in the country.
“In terms of recoveries and convictions which are usually the attention of the media, he has also done a lot in terms of one year,” Uwujaren said on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s breakfast show The Morning Brief.
“In terms of naira recovery, we have recovered over N200bn in one year of Ola Olukoyede’s administration. That is not to talk about the dollar and the euro components of the recoveries. The figures are actually humongous. In terms of the conviction returns, we have over 3,000 convictions in one year of his administration. That for us is interesting.”
‘Prevention Better Than Cure’
Despite these milestones, the EFCC spokesman said the commission’s focus is on the prevention of crimes rather than convictions.
According to him, a majority of the convictions were cases of cybercrime with youths taking the largest share.
“But we are not emphasising records of convictions per se because our focus, for now, is to prevent corruption,” he said.
“Of those conviction figures I have just given, 70 per cent of those convictions pertain to cybercrime cases.”
“The style of this leadership of the EFCC is that there is a major emphasis on the prevention of corruption,” he said.
To make that happen, he said the commission has put up measures including sensitisation of youth across the country on the dangers of fraud, especially cybercrime.
Apart from cybercrime among young people, Uwujaren identified corruption in the public sector as a major source of concern.
“You will agree with me that the major source of corruption especially in the public sector largely pertains to contract and procurement processes and the commission is determined to ensure that these practices are checked before they occur,” the agency’s spokesman added.
“The popular maxim is that prevention is better than cure and once you are able to prevent procurement fraud before they happen, we would be able to save a lot of resources for this country.”