By David Torough, Abuja

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered more than ₦1.23 trillion in cash and assets and secured 10,872 convictions between October 2023 and July 2026, its Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed.

Olukoyede, who made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja at a media interactive session marking his three-year stewardship of the commission, said the figures reflected a period of sustained enforcement, prosecution, asset recovery, institutional reform and stronger collaboration with local and international partners.

According to him, the commission received 49,673 petitions, investigated 39,615 cases, filed 14,476 cases in court and secured 10,872 convictions during the period, representing a 75.

He said the commission recovered ₦1.233 trillion, $684.48 million, £373,905.78 and €9.34 million, in addition to recoveries in other currencies, between October 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026.

Of the naira recoveries, Olukoyede said approximately ₦397.26 billion represented direct recoveries for the Federal Government, while ₦836.34 billion was recovered on behalf of ministries, departments and agencies, state revenue services, companies, individuals and foreign victims.

He said ₦661.32 billion and $492.37 million had subsequently been released to beneficiaries, including ₦325.35 billion paid directly to individuals and corporate bodies and ₦335.97 billion released to government agencies, revenue services and other beneficiaries.

The EFCC boss said the commission had also secured the forfeiture of 10,053 tangible assets, comprising 8,198 electronic items, 1,177 real estate properties, 370 automobiles and 102 tonnes of solid minerals. Proceeds from disposed assets, he added, amounted to about ₦12.07 billion.

Beyond enforcement, Olukoyede said the commission was increasingly focused on preventing financial crimes before stolen funds could be dissipated.

He disclosed that the newly established Fraud Risk Assessment and Control Department (FRAC) was monitoring suspicious transactions and enabling the commission to move within 72 hours to freeze funds suspected to be illicit.

According to him, the shift has become necessary as criminals increasingly move stolen public funds into cryptocurrency wallets within hours, making traditional asset recovery more difficult.

He said the EFCC now had the capacity to trace registered virtual-asset wallets, while a national confiscation wallet had been established, with presidential approval, to hold seized cryptocurrencies.

The chairman also disclosed that the commission was using civil asset forfeiture provisions to recover suspected proceeds of crime without waiting for lengthy criminal trials, arguing that the approach could prevent assets from being dissipated while cases remained in court.

Olukoyede said the EFCC had established a dedicated Process and Proceeds Management directorate to oversee forfeited assets and had begun disposing of depreciating assets, with proceeds kept in escrow pending final court decisions.

The commission’s reform agenda, however, has also extended to its own personnel.

Olukoyede revealed that more than 40 EFCC staff had been dismissed over corruption and financial malpractice during his tenure, while about five others are currently facing prosecution.

He said the commission’s former Internal Affairs Department had been renamed the Department of Ethics and Integrity, alongside the introduction of a gift policy requiring personnel to declare gifts above specified values and account for their sources of income and standard of living.

“You can’t be fighting corruption when your hands are soiled with corrupt practices,” the chairman said, stressing that EFCC officials must be held to the same standards of accountability imposed on members of the public.

On the broader crime situation, Olukoyede said the commission recorded 46,288 offences across nine major crime typologies between 2024 and 2026, with advance-fee fraud and cybercrime accounting for nearly two-thirds.

He said recorded offences increased by 24.1 per cent between 2024 and 2025, with notable rises in procurement fraud, bank fraud, cybercrime and economic-governance offences.

The EFCC also recorded 920 specialised cases involving money laundering, unlicensed Bureau de Change operations, illegal mining, virtual assets and terrorist financing, securing 212 convictions.

Olukoyede said the commission’s enforcement efforts contributed to Nigeria’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List in October 2025, while 234 BDC cases resulting in 73 convictions supported foreign-exchange reforms.

He cited the convictions of former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman; former Managing Director of Nexim Bank, Robert Orya; and former Accountant-General of the Federation, Chukwunyere Nwabuoku, as evidence that the anti-graft campaign was being pursued regardless of status.

“No office or title places anyone beyond the reach of the law,” he said.

The chairman also highlighted institutional reforms, including the creation of new directorates in Ekiti, Anambra and Katsina, the digitalisation of about 60 per cent of EFCC processes, and investments in the EFCC Academy and EFCC Radio.

He said proceeds of crime were increasingly being channelled towards social and economic development, citing the allocation of ₦50 billion each to NELFUND and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation from EFCC recoveries in 2024 and again in 2026.

He also disclosed that recovered property formerly known as NOK University had been converted into the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Kaduna State, where 1,909 students matriculated in December 2025.

Olukoyede maintained that law enforcement alone could not win the war against financial crime, stressing the need for policy and institutional reforms that would close loopholes and prevent public resources from being stolen in the first place.

He called on the media and civil society organisations to strengthen their watchdog roles and pledged to deepen prevention, accelerate restitution and intensify the fight against corruption while upholding due process.

The Katsina State Government said it has vaccinated 67,670 eligible persons against diphtheria and secured 650,000 additional vaccine doses to contain an outbreak reported in 29 local government areas.

Executive Secretary of the Katsina State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KSPHCDA), Dr Shaimau Abba, disclosed this at a press briefing on Sunday in Katsina.

Abba said that as of Epidemiological Week 35, ending Aug.

She identified Funtua as the most affected local government area, followed by Kankia, Bakori, Katsina, Mashi and Daura.

According to her, the outbreak is a serious public health concern, however, the government has activated necessary measures to prevent further transmission and reduce severe illness and deaths.

She described diphtheria as a serious but preventable infectious disease that mainly affected the respiratory system and could spread from person to person, particularly in communities with low vaccination coverage.

She said that the response was being coordinated under the leadership of Gov. Dikko Radda, through the State Emergency Preparedness and Rapid Response Team and KSPHCDA.

The executive secretary said that the response involved the State Ministry of Health, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and development partners.

She said that the emergency preparedness and response structure remained fully activated under the Incident Management System, with surveillance and response activities continuing across affected communities.

Abba said that the measures included intensified disease surveillance, contact tracing; line-listing of suspected cases; regular review of outbreak data, and provision of chemoprophylaxis to identified contacts.

According to her, a reactive vaccination campaign commenced on Aug. 25, targeting 15 high-risk wards across Bakori; Charanchi; Funtua; Mashi and Kankia Local Government Areas.

Abba described the response from residents as encouraging, attributing the turnout to intensive house-to-house mobilisation and the involvement of traditional leaders and other community stakeholders.

 She added that close supervision by government health authorities and development partners had also contributed to the progress recorded.

 The executive secretary said that the government had secured an additional 650,000 doses of diphtheria-containing vaccines to strengthen and expand the reactive immunisation campaign.

 She said that the additional doses would enable health authorities to rapidly protect residents in communities experiencing the outbreak and those considered vulnerable.

Abba urged residents to cooperate with health workers and vaccination teams, stressing that community participation was crucial to stopping the spread of the disease.

She also called on parents and caregivers to ensure that eligible children received routine childhood vaccinations and urged residents to promptly report suspected cases to the nearest health facility.

Abba assured residents that surveillance, treatment and vaccination activities would continue until the outbreak was brought under control.

She said that the combined efforts of government, health workers, communities, traditional and religious leaders and development partners would be critical to protecting lives and preventing further transmission. (NAN)

From John Lamma, Jalingo

In an effort to promote lasting peace and peaceful coexistence in society, Bishop Ande Emmanuel of the United Methodist Church Nigeria (UMCN) has called for stronger collaboration among the Church, Muslim community and media.

Emmanuel made the call on Friday at the closing session of a five-day Roundtable Peace Talk and Media Interactive Session held at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, Mile Six, Jalingo, Taraba State.

The engagement, themed “Promoting Peace, Reconciliation, Unity and Sustainable Conflict Transformation,” brought together religious leaders, traditional rulers, media practitioners, women and youth leaders and other stakeholders to discuss ways of preventing conflict and strengthening peaceful coexistence.

The bishop said peace could not be achieved by Christians, Muslims, government or the media alone, stressing that it was a shared responsibility.

He urged Nigerians to move beyond discussing peace and take practical steps to make peaceful coexistence possible.

Emmanuel said the responsibility of church leaders extended beyond preaching the gospel, urging them to become active peace vanguards by promoting reconciliation, tolerance and unity in their communities.

He also called for stronger Christian-Muslim cooperation, saying religious differences should not become a basis for hatred or violence.

According to him, Christians and Muslims might have different theological beliefs, but they share communities, markets, schools, workplaces and a common country.

He urged both faith communities to protect those bonds and make Jalingo and Taraba examples of peaceful Christian-Muslim coexistence.

The bishop said the United Methodist Church in Nigeria had learned important lessons from its own experience of internal conflict and reconciliation.

He said the Church had experienced serious divisions over the years, resulting in leadership disputes, strained relationships, court cases, factions and divided communities.

He explained that conflict transformation should go beyond simply ending immediate disputes to addressing the underlying causes of conflict, including mistrust, injustice, inequality, exclusion, grievances and damaged relationships.

The bishop said the Church’s experience could serve as a message of hope to Nigeria, arguing that if a divided church could begin to rebuild trust and unity, divided communities could also overcome longstanding differences.

Emmanuel, however, stressed that unity did not mean uniformity, noting that Nigerians could belong to different ethnic groups, political parties and religious traditions while respecting one another.

The bishop particularly urged journalists and media managers to recognise their role in promoting peace, warning that irresponsible reporting and unverified information could worsen tensions and trigger crises.

He called on media practitioners to verify information before publishing it, investigate claims, provide context and avoid inflammatory language that could deepen religious, ethnic or political divisions.

Emmanuel warned against allowing social media to turn newsrooms into “forwarding centres,” urging journalists to cross-check information before amplifying it.

He encouraged journalists to report not only conflicts but also stories of reconciliation, cooperation, community rebuilding and peaceful relations between Christians and Muslims.

According to him, responsible journalism could help identify early warning signs of conflict, expose injustice before it escalated and give communities opportunities to be heard.

Emmanuel also urged religious leaders to ensure that churches and mosques did not become platforms for hatred.

He called for regular meetings between Christian and Muslim leaders and joint peacebuilding initiatives involving young people and women.

The bishop cautioned against collectively blaming Muslims for acts of violence committed by extremists, saying individual criminal acts should not be used to stigmatise entire religious communities.

Emmanuel stressed that sustainable peace must also be built on justice, accountability, good governance, development, education, employment and security.

The bishop also called for greater involvement of traditional rulers in early warning, mediation, dialogue and community reconciliation.

According to him, traditional rulers understand their communities, histories and grievances and can often identify rising tensions before they develop into major conflicts.

Speaking on behalf of traditional rulers, HRH Alh. Abubakar Mamoud Adamu, Kur Jibu Bali, called for collective efforts to promote peaceful coexistence and national unity.

Adamu urged religious leaders to consistently educate their followers on the importance of dialogue and peaceful resolution of disputes whenever misunderstandings arise.

Pastor Dr. Haniel Banti, Kpan Sanwi Chiefdom, Lau Local Government Area, called for an attitudinal change among church leaders, accusing some of contributing to crises within the Church.

Banti urged the Church to reclaim its position as a vanguard of peace by demonstrating tolerance, reconciliation and responsible leadership.

On youth development, Emmanuel said young people should not be viewed merely as a problem to be controlled, but as a generation that should be empowered through education, skills, employment and opportunities.

Rev. Dr. Christie Neal, Domain Facilitator from the United States, charged participants to put into practice the lessons acquired during the five-day Roundtable Peace Talk.

Neal commended Bishop Emmanuel for organising the programme, describing the initiative as timely and relevant to the promotion of peace in society.

The bishop also challenged the United Methodist Church to take the lessons from its reconciliation experience beyond the Church and contribute to peacebuilding efforts across Nigeria.

He urged members of the Church to protect the unity achieved through reconciliation and avoid returning to factionalism, sectionalism and personality-driven divisions.

Emmanuel said the Church’s experience should demonstrate to Nigerians that reconciliation was possible even after prolonged division.

He urged Nigerians to reject the use of religion, ethnicity and politics as weapons of division and instead choose dialogue, reconciliation, justice and unity.

Emmanuel proposed seven commitments for peacebuilding: speaking truth without spreading hatred, verifying information before amplifying it, choosing dialogue before escalation, protecting human dignity, building bridges across religious and social divides, pursuing justice without revenge, and making peacebuilding a way of life.

The bishop called on Nigerians to become “bridge-builders” and work towards a society where religious, ethnic and political differences would not destroy the country’s common humanity.

The event, which marked the conclusion of the five-day peace engagement, featured interactive question-and-answer sessions, while certificates of participation were presented to delegates at the conclusion of the programme.