The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that the commission has secured the forfeiture of cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Federal Government within the past three years.

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Olukoyede made the disclosure on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom. He explained that Nigeria’s legal framework allows the EFCC to seek the forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without necessarily waiting for a criminal conviction.

The EFCC chairman said the process begins with an application to the High Court based on reasonable suspicion that an asset represents proceeds of crime. He noted that Nigeria’s framework is similar to systems operating in countries such as Australia and Canada.

Olukoyede cited the recent forfeiture of an aircraft allegedly connected to an individual accused of receiving a $30 million bribe in relation to a power project. According to him, the aircraft was forfeited about three months ago and has since been added to the Presidential Air Fleet.

He also disclosed that the EFCC had forfeited a property containing approximately 753 housing units from a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who is facing criminal charges in three courts.

On the investigation into former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Olukoyede said the commission traced 57 properties allegedly linked to him and had secured forfeiture of about 48 of them.

The EFCC chairman further revealed that a private university allegedly linked to a director in the Federal Ministry of Health was also forfeited after the official voluntarily surrendered the property following an investigation.

According to Olukoyede, the commission’s success in non-conviction-based asset forfeiture has been driven by effective asset tracing, judicial cooperation and access to credible intelligence. He also called for stronger protection and incentives for whistleblowers whose information leads to the recovery of assets allegedly taken out of Nigeria.