The EFCC’s Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, announced on Wednesday that the agency has started examining the financial dealings of the oil and gas industry. In doing so, they have already discovered corruption on a mind-boggling scale.
He disclosed that the current investigation of the oil and gas industry is merely beginning to uncover the extensive financial misconduct present. Additionally, he encouraged the National Assembly to swiftly enact legislation making unexplained wealth a criminal offense.
He said, “In the last three weeks, we started a commission-wide investigation into the extractive industry, particularly the oil and gas sector. What we have discovered is mind-boggling. And we have only just opened the books. So much more corruption is to be unraveled. If this is what we’re seeing at the surface, imagine what lies beneath.
“There is a very strong connection between the mismanagement of our resources and insecurity. When you look at banditry, kidnapping, terrorism, trace it back, and you will find a pattern of corrupt practices and diversion of funds that were meant to improve people’s lives.
“Help me pass the Unexplained Wealth Bill. I’ve been begging for the past one year. This same bill was thrown out in the last Assembly. If we don’t make individuals accountable for what they have, we’ll never get it right.
“Someone has worked in a ministry for 20 years. We calculate their entire salary and allowances. Then we find five properties — two in Maitama, three in Asokoro. Yet we’re told to go and prove a predicate offence before we can act. That is absurd.
“Once you are living beyond your means, you should be held to account. Until we do this, there will always be an escape route for the corrupt.
“Last month alone, I visited four or five countries chasing Nigeria’s stolen assets. An ambassador even told me they discovered an estate in Iceland owned by a Nigerian. Iceland of all places!
“There is no amount of capacity I can build, no level of effort I can put in, that will enable me to recover even half of what has been stolen from Nigeria because the custodians of those assets in foreign countries don’t want to let go. And they won’t.
“I told them at the United Nations Forum last December that if you are holding onto Nigeria’s stolen assets, we see you as an accessory after the fact. They grumbled, but I didn’t care.
“We are doing this work. We see people who have stolen our money. We have shown you evidence. We’ve traced where the money went. We are already in court. Yet, they’re being celebrated all over the place. Does that show we’re serious?
“How many books can you check? How many files will you read? We need to build strong internal compliance systems that can proactively checkmate corruption.”