…says over $30bn recovered from suspended AGF
…insists commission still pursuing Kalu’s matter in court
OSAS EMMANUEL
The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that no fewer than 3,615 convictions have been secured by the Commission between January 1 and October 31, 2022.
Speaking at the weekly Ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Bawa also revealed within the period under review, over $121 million has been recovered as part of the assets forfeited to the federal government.
Bawa said that the number of convictions secured by the Commission this year alone, supercedes the total number of convictions secured by the commission in the oast years.
“In the first full year of the current administration, the EFCC recorded only 195 convictions, that was 2016. In 2017, EFCC recorded 186; we went down. In 2018, we recorded 312 convictions.
“In 2019, we recorded 1,280 convictions, it went up with over 312 percent; in 2022, we had COVID, so we went down to 976. Last year (2021), which was part of my administration, we recorded an unprecedented 2,220 convictions and this year, even though it has not ended, as of December 9, 2022, the EFCC has already recorded 3,615 convictions.
“The figures, showing convictions that the EFCC has secured this year alone, are more than the convictions the commission has recorded from inception up till 2020.”
While noting that over 50 per cent of the convictions were cybercrimes related, he described the convictions secured this year by the commission as unprecedented.
Speaking further, he also revealed that the commission has recovered N354bn unpaid royalty from a company which he did not name.
On the forfeited assets, the EFCC Chairman said €156,925, ¥21,350 CFA300,000, 52 automobiles, one motorcycle, 57 electronic gadgets, 78 pieces of clothing are among assets recovered.
Bawa said the aforementioned assets had been forfeited to the federal government and are not cases under investigation.
“In terms of monetary recoveries for the year under review, from January 1st to October 31st, 2022, we recovered N134,337,759,574,” he said.
“We have equally recovered $121 million as well as different amounts of pound sterling, euro, Japanese yen, among others
“For the non-cash assets, these are some of the recoveries that we have made: 52 automobiles, electronics, motorcycles, clothing and real estates. These are forfeited assets, not cases that are under investigation.”
Fielding questions from the State House correspondents on the recoveries made from politically exposed persons, Bawa revealed that over N30 billion has been recovered from the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Idris Ahmed.
He said that the Commission is currently prosecuting the suspended AGF over alleged N109 billion fraud.
Bawa, who further spoke on the operations so far under his watch, said the EFCC had not backed down on the N7.1 billion fraud case against former governor of Abia State and Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
Senator Kalu had sought an Abuja Federal High Court’s order to bar the EFCC to retry him, arguing that a Supreme Court decision which ordered a retrial of the fraud case did not include him as a party in the retrial.
The court granted Kalu’s plea, ordering the anti-graft agency to exclude him from the retrial of a case for which he had been tried and convicted.
Reacting to a question during the briefing, Bawa said the former governor had not been discharged, nor acquitted, adding that the EFCC was still pursuing the matter against him.
“My friend here asked about Senator Orji Uzor Kalu. The prosecution lasted 12 years or so and he was convicted by the court. He went to the Supreme Court and the court said yes because he was elevated to the Court of Appeal, it cannot come back to the lower court and that he should be retried in Lagos.
“So, we wanted to arraign him almost immediately in Lagos for the prosecution to start all over again and then he went to court, challenging that he has been discharged and acquitted and nobody discharged and acquitted him and we are still pursuing the matters in court here in Abuja. So the matter is still ongoing.”
