The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the status of assets seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from convicted criminals since its inception. Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal revealed the House decision while declaring open a three-day public investigative hearing organised by its Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes.
Tambuwal stated that time had come to identify and verify all assets forfeited to the Federal Government through EFCC. According to him, “EFCC has between 2003 and now confiscated over 200 mansions and large sums of money through 46 forfeiture court orders. These landed property, monies, and business concerns which were estimated to be worth in excess of N2 trillion, included bank accounts, shares in blue chip companies, exotic vehicles, fuel stations, holdings, warehouses and shopping malls.”
Though he commended the efforts of the EFCC to rid the nation of economic crimes through the Assets Forfeiture Unit it set up in 2008, Tambuwal noted that there had been many reported cases of “vandalism, improper storage, abandonment and waste” of seized assets. Specifically, the Speaker argued that the nation cannot continue to condone a situation where over 400 vehicles seized through the diligent efforts of EFCC are left to rot away.
While we agree with Speaker Tambuwal that the setting up of an Asset Forfeiture Unit was a laudable step by the anti-corruption agency, we find it deplorable and disappointing that EFCC appears to be taking on the garb of a menace it was created to destroy. Recent reports on the finding of $170 million in an unidentified account, 200 seized houses which statuses are unidentified and 400 forfeited vehicles in different states of disrepair is, to say the least, appalling. It reeks of rancid indiscipline on the part of the EFCC that the agency that was set up to prevent theft and prosecute corrupt persons and organisations is now being forced to account for seized assets. That the commission came to this pass where its handling of seized assets is shrouded in secrecy is suspicious. That N2 trillion, which is almost 50 percent of Nigeria’s total annual budget, has yet to be accounted for calls to question the integrity of the anti-graft agency.
Nigerians see the EFCC as the most reliable of the nation’s anti-corruption agencies and expect so much from it. If the malfeasance and misfeasance which the agency is now being accused of turns out to be true, then the nation’s anti-corruption war is in jeopardy. It would be like the case of the thief-catcher caught stealing.
We call for a judicial commission of inquiry in addition to the current efforts of the House of Representatives to look into this matter. The commission’s proceedings should take place in the open so that Nigerians can verify the status and whereabouts of properties that had been forfeited to the Federal Government in 46 cases. The time has come for more light to be thrown on the activities of EFCC and other government agencies Nigerians have come to see as trusted allies in the anti-corruption war. We cannot afford a situation like the one in the oil sector where Nigerians do not know the exact figure of the number of barrels of crude oil produced in the country. Sleaze becomes the order of the day where public accounts are shrouded in secrecy. For as long as Nigerians have to wonder about those 200 houses and seized hotels and companies, the reputation of the EFCC will continue to be called into question.
There is, therefore, an urgent need for a designated account for forfeited assets such that when financial crimes suspects are cleared, they can retrieve their properties and where they are found guilty, we can trace what they have forfeited to a particular account. A situation where forfeited assets are left to ‘float’ will create room for more corruption. There should also be proper documentation of seized assets even where trials have not commenced.
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