The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has refuted claims of a lack of integrity and transparency levelled against the commission’s boss, Ola Olukoyede, by a columnist, Steve Osuji.
Steve had alleged that the EFCC deliberately keeps no records, nor does it release the statutory annual report and accounts of its activities. According to him, this is deliberate so that personnel of the Anti-Graft agency would achieve their dubious motives without leaving a trail.
He also claimed that the EFCC now exhibits so much brazen impunity that it showcases to Nigerians that the commission has lost everything good it ever had.
“Twenty years of investigations, and yet when you search its site, there’s not a single mention of one Patience Jonathan, not even the Supreme Court decision on seizing $8.4m from her in 2019…”
But in a statement, EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale said Osuji’s allegations against the EFCC and Olukoyede were worrisome and unjustifiable.
Oyewale said, “More worrisome was his attack on Olukoyede for no justifiable reason. Allegations of a lack of transparency, accountability and integrity deficit are wild and clearly off the mark.
“The question is: in what way has Olukoyede fallen short? Is it by insisting that the right things should always be done? By moving the nation’s anti-graft war forward radically and unprecedentedly?
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“By bringing forth a preventive framework to tackle corruption and reaping bountiful gains for the nation?
“By recovering the globally-acclaimed 753 duplexes and other apartments, which are proceeds of fraudulent dealings, for the nation?
“By launching the EFCC into a global map of accomplished anti-graft agencies? By handling 50,000 case files in one year?
“By embarking on a courageous internal cleansing system and other progressive initiatives to deepen and strengthen the anti-corruption fight?
“It is cowardly and uncharitable for any columnist to hide under a vague and opaque cover to splash mud on Ola Olukoyede, arguably one of the finest breeds of anti-graft czars around the world.”
Olukoyede said the EFCC has never failed to submit its annual report to the National Assembly every September as it is statutorily required.
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“Equally preposterous are claims of re-looting of assets by officers of the Commission. For the purpose of clarification, the Commission does not recover monetary assets into its covers and the non-monetary assets that are recovered are disposed of following clear pronouncements by court and proceeds paid into the Confiscated and Forfeited Properties Account account in the Central Bank in line with provisions of the Proceeds of Crime ( Recovery and Management) Act, 2022.
“The EFCC does not operate in secrecy. All its operations are regularly communicated to the public, including the public auction of assets. To deliberately cast the Commission in the mould of fraudulent engagements or criminality is not only mischievous but also untenable,” the statement read.
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