From Sola Ojo, Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has achieved a major milestone in its fight against financial crimes, recording over 1,000 convictions for money laundering cases alone in 2024.
This was disclosed by the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, at the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) 2025 summit in Abuja on Tuesday.
Olukoyede attributed the success to the efforts of the agencies involved and the valuable intelligence provided by the NFIU.
“The Chief Executive Officer of NFIU, Hajiya Afsat Bakare, practically dragged me to Singapore last year to see how things work during the evaluation process.
“With three days I spent there, I had a renewed commitment when I came back to Nigeria.
“We just concluded our statistics for last year and we discovered we recorded over 1,000 convictions on the cases of money laundering alone.
“Be rest assured we will do more. But then, that doesn’t speak to the volume of problems we have in our system; it rather speaks to what the agencies involved are doing. We are getting more intelligence from NFIU like never before both proactively and reactively”, he said.
He commended the NFIU staff for their proactiveness, which has significantly contributed to the EFCC’s achievements. “So, I want to salute the staff of NFIU. Let us continue to work together.
The Chairman also emphasized the global nature of financial crimes and the need for international cooperation, expressing appreciation for global partners attending the summit.
“We want to appreciate our partners all over the world, especially those who are here representing other countries, recognizing the fact that this problem we are facing is not about the country.
“The menace we are talking about has taken global dimensions and there is the need for us to work together.
“I also want to make another commitment that this year, we are going to do better and be rest assured that Nigeria is going to get up a great deal”, he committed.