EFCC offers 5% reward to whistleblowers on stolen national assets abroad

The executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, has offered whistleblowers worldwide rewards of between 2.5 and five per cent for actionable information leading to the recovery of monetary and non-monetary assets allegedly stolen by corrupt Nigerians and stashed abroad.

Olukoyede made the call, Wednesday, while delivering a lecture at the 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

The EFCC chairman urged anyone with information about the location of Nigerian assets taken abroad to come forward, assuring them of financial incentives upon successful recovery.

“I welcome all of you to the world of whistleblowing. If any one of you is privy to where Nigerian assets are stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you; between 2.5% and 5%, it’s going to go back to you upon recovery,” he said.

Olukoyede added: “You never tell if you give any information here, some of you may leave this place, multi-millionaire in your lifetime.”

The EFCC boss, who received applause from the audience, stated that the commission had recovered and secured forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million for the Nigerian government within three years of his assumption of office.

“Within three years of my assumption of office, we’ve been able to forfeit both cash and assets worth over half a billion dollars to the government,” he said.

He attributed the recoveries to the resourcefulness and professionalism of EFCC investigators, a virile judiciary and access to credible intelligence.

Olukoyede also stated that Nigeria’s non-conviction-based asset forfeiture framework allows the EFCC to seek forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction, noting that the approach is similar to practices in Australia and Canada.