The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has disclosed various sums that it recovered in the course of its operational activities in 2021.
The Commission’s review of its activities in 2021 and the sums recovered, in various currencies, was made known via a press release today, by its Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren.
TheFact Nigeria reports that the Commission had, on 6 January, 2022, as part of the review of her operational activities carried out in the outgone year, disclosed that it had secured a total of 2,220 convictions across its various Commands nationwide, with its Lagos command recording the most convictions – 481, closely followed by the Ibadan Command with 324 convictions, while the Port Harcourt Zonal Command had 230 convictions.
According to the Commission, the conviction secured in 2021 is the highest by the EFCC since inception. Before 2021, the highest record of conviction by the Commission was secured in 2019 with 1280 convictions. The 2220 record of 2021 is a 127.5 % improvement over the 2019 record.
With regards to the sums recovered during the period under review – January to December, 2021 – the Commission disclosed that it recovered the aggregate sum of N152, 088,698,751.64; $386,220,202.84; £1, 182,519.75; €156,246.76; 1,723,310.00 Saudi Riyal; 1,900.00 South African Rand, and 1, 400.00 Canadian Dollars.
The recovery basket also included a digital currency component with 5, 36957319 Bitcoin and 0.09012 Ethereum.
Headquarters Operation dominated the recoveries with N67, 249, 744, 994.89, $375,662,223.59 and £1,151,539.75, closely followed by the Lagos Command which led the Naira recoveries with N70, 315,611,260.52, $9,286,497.83 and £21,500.00.
The Kaduna Zonal Command emerged third in terms of Naira recoveries with a total sum of N3, 339,405,723.93 while the Ibadan Zonal Command took the same position in terms of Dollar recoveries to the tune of $387,385.00.
Giving an overview of the performance, the Executive Chairman of the Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, explained that the monies included direct and indirect recoveries for the different tiers of government (Federal, State and Local Governments), corporate organizations and individuals (victims of crime) within the year under review.
The anti-graft czar, while commending the personnel of the Commission for the performance, urged them to redouble their efforts to ensure that perpetrators of economic and financial crimes are denied the benefit of the proceeds of crime.
