The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has advocated for legislation targeting unexplained wealth to combat the criminal activities of treasury looters in Nigeria.
Addressing a two-day International Law Conference themed “Unexplained Wealth in the Global South: Examining the Asset Recovery and Return Trajectory,” hosted by Christopher University in Mowe, Ogun State, the EFCC chairman highlighted that while several countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, Mauritius, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Trinidad and Tobago have embraced Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) since 2018, Nigeria’s foremost anti-graft agency, the EFCC, still relies on the provisions of Section 7 of its Establishment Act to tackle the menace.
According to him, “The issue of unexplained wealth is not a local issue. There are jurisdictional legislations across the world to tackle it. Till date, countries of the world are faced with criminalities emanating from money laundering practices and illicit funds. This circumstance led to the promulgation of Unexplained Wealth Orders, UWOs that came into force in 2018. Several countries, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Mauritius and African countries like Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean have come up with UWO. Nigeria is yet to come up with a national legislation on it.”
Represented by the Abuja zonal commander, assistant commander of the EFCC, ACE1 Adebayo Adeniyi, the EFCC chairman emphasised that treasury looters would have little cover if the issue of unexplained wealth was tackled more seriously across the world.
According to him, “ In Nigeria today, unexplained wealth has become practical means of tracing, identifying, investigating and prosecuting corruption cases. As an anti-graft agency, suspects of any economic and financial crimes are usually required to declare their assets in the course of investigation. The basis for this is to properly establish their true asset base and their linkage or otherwise to any act of corruption. Owing to the absence of a legislation on the issue of unexplained wealth, the EFCC continues to rely on provisions of Section 7 of its Establishment Act to handle it.”
Spokesperson of the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said Olukoyede also used the occasion to throw more light on the commission’s experience regarding assets recovery, saying the concerns about unexplained wealth bordered on asset tracing, investigation and recovery.
He said: “Nations are rapidly settling for non- conviction based asset forfeiture. The reason for this is simple: unexplained wealth can only be beneficial to the state if they are forfeited. Since inception, the EFCC has secured sizable assets from fraudsters. They range from houses, vehicles, barges, jewelry , money, furniture items, landed properties, among others.”
