Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, has revealed that the Commission is presently investigating 18 serving governors.
Olukoyede, who spoke in Lagos on Friday at the naira abuse sensitation campaign, said EFCC has taken it upon itself to investigate governors even before they complete their tenure.
According to him, “There was a case of a Nigerian governor who travelled the second day he handed over to the United Kingdom to celebrate his birthday.
“As he was in the hotel celebrating with his friends and spraying £50 bills, the hotel waiter called 911, thinking he was mad. When Metropolitan Police got there, he was arrested. But two of his fellow governors who were there pleaded that he was not mad and he was handed over to the EFCC.
“He was prosecuted and jailed but was later pardoned. You could see that even the British do not allow people to spray or stamp their currency”, he added.
Speaking on how to curb the abuse of naira, Olukoyede said the naira is not only a means of exchange, but also “our sovereignty”.
“People claim that naira spraying is part of our culture and customs. Assuming that without conceding that it’s true, I think culture and customs must add value to us and evolve the way our lifestyle evolved. There’s nothing cultural about spraying and stamping of naira. The EFCC is mandated to enforce all naira abuse. The Commission will be failing in its operation by succumbing to such blackmail. We must all lend our voices to restore the integrity of our naira because it’s our sovereignty”.
The EFCC helmsman said two signature programmes of Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu have benefitted from the proceeds of crimes recovered.
The NELFUND & Credit Programme, he said were the two programmes.
It’s also on record that N50bn of the proceeds of crimes has been committed to NELFUND so far.
Olukoyede also said funds recovered were deployed to build skills acquisition centre and NDDC’s headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, which was commissioned recently
Olakoyede also explained that unlike in the past when some of the money recovered was relooted, the Commission, according to him, is poised to use money recovered judiciously.
“We have also recovered a university which we later changed to the University of Applied Sciences, Kashia Kaduna, from a former director in a civil service who diverted about N12 billion to build a university. The university is one of the best private universities we have around.
He said that out of 194 foreigners who were arrested in Lagos on charges of illegal crytocurrency, 168 of them have been convicted.
“As of yesterday, 168 of the foreigners have been convicted. We are ready to clean our economic sector to make it attractive to foreign investors.
“Yahoo Yahoo and other associated crimes have done a lot of reputation damage to us. At a time, Nigerian passports could enter 12 developed countries without a visa. But today, the international passports of Cameron and Ghana are better than us”, he lamented.
Olukoyede, who said he filed over 5,000 corruption cases last year alone, also said it’s very difficult to prosecute politically exposed persons and convict them, especially former governors, because they have the wherewithal to hire lawyers and delay the prosecution
“More than 65% of the cases we filed last year were on civil servants, politically exposed persons. There was a case of a former governor we spent 11 years on interlocutory injunction from Federal High Court up to Supreme Court before the apex court decided that he (ex-governor) had a case to answer.
“Do you know what it takes to prosecute former governors?” he asked.
“We received calls from high and mighty. At times, we have to relocate from our homes. We’re constantly under pressure”.
On how to nip corruption in the bud, Olukoyede said:
“I also established a fraud risk assessment unit to prevent money from being pilfered. Within one year of the unit, we have prevented N10bn from being stolen.
“The EFCC also owned an anti- corruption radio 97.3 FM for public enlightenment and anti corruption efforts to curb the activities of fraudsters.”
Corroborating the EFCC chairman, Director General of the National Orientation Agency, Mallam Lanre Isa Onilu, said abuse of naira is not only unlawful, but it’s also unethical.
“For civic responsibility and national cohesion, we must ensure that we treat our naira in a dignified manner. “The National Values Charter also dwells on how to curb the abuse of naira. “We have our television commercials running on some stations to sensitise Nigerians about this,” he added.
