The recent interactive discussions of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Professor Fidelis Oditah, on a wide range of issues especially on Arise News are quite engaging. As a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and an international legal mind, his views on national issues cannot be disregarded. A former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, once said, “With words, we govern men.” Thus, Oditah words are important and cannot be dismissed as empty effusions lacking weight or impact.
However, the learned Professor’s submission on what he called the three fundamental problems of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prejudicial, unfounded and misleading.
First, Oditah stated, “The EFCC is often used for settling scores. Some are political scores, some are social scores. So, you could run away from your girlfriend and the girlfriend goes to the EFCC and the EFCC could ask you questions. What has that got to do with economic crimes? That is a blatant abuse of power.”
How on earth will this kind of scenario be painted by the learned silk? The simplest argument against this kind of effusion is to challenge Oditah to provide proof of such banality. We all know that this is just idle talk because the EFCC is a serious-minded law enforcement agency. The only problematic aspect of such a talk is that it shows an embarrassing lack of grasp of what the EFCC’s focus is.
This appropriate and proper focus on the mandate of the EFCC has been a central pivot of the three-pronged agenda of the current Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede. In the full glare of the entire world, while addressing members of the National Assembly in October 2023, Olukoyede stated that the focus of every fight against corruption is to stimulate growth in the economy. For more than a year, the EFCC boss has consistently followed this route. The review of the arrest and bail procedures of the EFCC is in line with this. Professor Oditah is probably busy with his work as a King’s Counsel in the United Kingdom and has no time to be abreast of developments in the EFCC. Olukoyede is a lawyer of high pedigree and would not allow what the learned counsel called “blatant abuse of power.”
The second “fundamental problem of the EFCC,” according to Oditah is that, “The EFCC has abandoned its mandate and reduced itself to a debt-collection agency, notwithstanding the numerous court decisions saying the EFCC must stay within the narrow confines of financial and economic crimes. The EFCC has gone out for debt recovery.” This submission, again, is hollow and vacuous. The EFCC’s Establishment Act does not empower the Commission to collect debt on behalf of anyone. The recovery the EFCC does is taking back proceeds of crime from fraudsters. Asset recovery, all over the world, is a fundamental law enforcement and anti-corruption initiative. It is the Grundnorm of every anti-corruption fight. To this end, Olukoyede in just one year, recovered N248,750,049,365.52 (Two Hundred and Forty-Eight Billion, Seven Hundred and Fifty Million, Forty-Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Naira, Fifty-Two Kobo).
In foreign currencies, recoveries of the Commission in the one year of Olukoyede’s leadership are $105,423,190.39 (One Hundred and Five Million, Four Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Ninety Dollars, Thirty-Nine Cents); £53,133.64 (Fifty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty-Three Pounds, Sixty-Four Pence; €172,547.10 (One Hundred and Seventy-Two Thousand, Five Hundred and Forty-Seven Euros, Ten Cents) and many others.
Going by the quantum of these recoveries, not to talk of real estate recovered all over the country, including shares acquired with proceeds of crime in blue-chip companies, it is simply preposterous to reduce and ridicule asset recoveries to debt recovery. Professor Oditah owes the EFCC and the entire nation an unconditional apology in this regard. Most recently, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos granted final forfeitures of over $ 2 million and seven princely properties in choice areas of Lagos to the Federal Government. The assets are proceeds of crime traced to a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Do such recoveries fall into the category of the debt recovery insinuation of Oditah? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently directed that N100 billion be channelled to the funding of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation respectively from the monetary recoveries of the EFCC. Is the Professor aware of all these? Bringing down the issue of asset recovery to the ridiculous corridor of debt recovery is a deliberate caricature of an important anti-corruption framework of the government. This is an initiative that local, regional and international agencies are commending Olukoyede and the EFCC. It is to be noted also that the Director of FBI and the DG of the National Crime Agency in the UK, where he resides, have paid courtesy visits to Olukoyede commending him on the feat he has attained in the fight against corruption and financial crimes and to seek more collaboration with the agency in their shared mandate of fighting corruption and financial crimes.
The third issue Odikah raised against the EFCC, like the earlier issues, again, lacks any firm ground of substance. He said: “The EFCC itself, several officers are more corrupt than those they are chasing. You remember what happened to Mr Bawa, Mr Matawalle, when Mr Matawalle finished his tenure as governor of Zamfara state and he said he was invited by Mr Bawa to bring $ 2 million so as not to be investigated. The EFCC itself has become a corrupt organisation which needs to be completely disbanded and a new body set up. The EFCC has the resources. It does not have the ethics. The EFCC majors on minor issues, catching students and showing them as cyber criminals and, says it procured 1000 convictions, When you look at them, they are people who have defrauded people of 20 or 22 dollars. That’s not the mandate. That’s the periphery. The central mandate is to ensure that the resources which are put in the hands of states are used by the states and that’s where the EFCC should come in.”
Going through all these trumped-up claims, it is obvious that Oditah has elected to launch an unwarranted verbal war on the Commission and its officers. How many officers of the EFCC have been tainted with corruption allegations? Is it acceptable to use the “sins” of very few elements in a community to paint and taint it as a community of sinners? It should be noted that no law enforcement agency in the world is vulnerable to corrupt officers. What is important is what the agency is doing to such elements. Olukoyede is known for his no-nonsense approach to ethical issues in the Commission. As a matter of fact, upon assumption of duties, he directed every officer of the Commission to declare their assets and ensure that verification of assets so declared is established. He went ahead to name the Department of Internal Affairs as the Department of Ethics and Integrity. Beyond these, some erring officers of the Commission have either been shown the way out or facing trial. In recent times, the Commission has had cause to dismiss some officers on allegations of corruption and gross misconduct. The EFCC is self- cleansing and the Commission deserves commendation for this.
It is worrisome that a Professor of the reputation and exposure of Oditah could dismiss the Commission’s onslaught against internet fraudsters as an unserious engagement. The damage, this genre of fraudsters is causing the nation is untold. A crime that has a projection of a $ 10.6 trillion loss to the whole world in 2025 and Nigeria lost more than $ 500 million in 2022 alone, is what Oditah derisively lampooned the EFCC about. We have cause to be worried that those who ought to know better are either playing the Ostrich or advertising their ignorance of a major malaise confronting the nation. Owing to the threat of cybercrimes to the development of our country, the EFCC has held two national dialogues on it. The recent one was held a few days ago at the Presidential Villa. The Professor should know that the EFCC mandate is to investigate all financial and economic crimes and no financial crime is small or big to be investigated to save the soul of the nation. It should be recalled that in recent times, the EFCC had had cause to prosecute and file charges against four ex-governors and some former ministers who were found culpable by EFCC’s investigation for looting state treasuries.
This is just to confirm that the Commission is not scared of taking up large-scale fraud investigations and prosecution which we shall continue to do.
There is no denying the fact that the respected professor goofed in all his comments about the EFCC and his views are not reflective of the realities on the ground concerning the anti-corruption fight of the government.
On a final note, we enjoin Professor Oditah to get himself familiar with the works of the Commission and lend his expertise and rich experience to the nation for a more robust and fully- integrated war against corruption. We also want to advise the fourth estate of the realm not to allow their platforms to be used to cast unfounded aspersions on the good works of the EFCC. The Commission is not averse to meaningful contributions and advice from well-meaning and reform-minded Nigerians to strengthen our processes and procedures as we continue this crusade,
