Economic, Financial Crimes Hard to Investigate in Nigeria, Admits EFCC Chairman

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Executive Chairman Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Olanipekun Olukoyede, has admitted difficulty investigating and prosecuting financial and economic crimes in Nigeria.

He made the confession at the 9th Annual Conference on Financial Crime, Cross-Border Crime and Governance Integrity in Abuja.
Olukoyede, who was represented at the occasion by the Head of Creative Communication on Financial Crime, EFCC, Chris Oluka, said investigating financial crime is also herculean for lawyers and judges to adjudicate because of involvement of a lot of financial trails.

His words: “Financial crime particularly is very hard to investigate and then prosecute. And even for lawyers and judges to adjudicate is usually hard because it involves a lot of financial trails that need to be investigated, opened and all that.

“That is why it takes a lot of effort to do this. And the judicial space in our country is also overwhelmed, so to speak. It is why sometimes some cases linger more than the expectation of the public.

“But it is not the fault of the EFCC. Sometimes this whole thing is about the laws sometimes and then about bottlenecks also regarding this whole thing, the fight against corruption.

“Sometimes you see a judge having several cases and it is difficult to handle each and every one of those cases on an individual basis. But I know with the support of Nigerian citizens we will get there.”

He also called for elimination of judicial bottleneck in fighting corruption and flayed politicians for using foundations and NGOs to cover up corrupt practices as well as weaponising corruption through constituency projects for the purpose of winning election.

Equally. the chairman, Open Africa Foundation, Tunji Aworinde, said EFCC is under-resourced in fighting corruption and should very well resourced to be more effective.

“We have made recommendations to the Presidency and National Assembly that we should have one anti-corruption institution like the FBI and the National Crime Agency in the UK for effectiveness and for efficiency.

“We do hope that those who have the power to review the law are going to do this going forward,” Aworinde said.