EFCC Seeks Whistleblowers on Stolen Assets Abroad at Cambridge Symposium

The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ola Olukoyede has called on whistleblowers across the world to offer useful and actionable intelligence to the Commission on monetary and non-monetary assets stashed abroad by corrupt Nigerians.
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He made this call on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom. According to him, any whistleblower that is privy to where Nigerian assets are kept abroad could come forward to assist the country in recovering them. This initiative, he said, would come with juicy rewards.

“I welcome all of you to the world of whistleblowing. If any one of you is privy to where Nigerian assets are stolen or taken to anywhere in the world, we have an incentive for you; between 2.5% and 5%, it’s going to go back to you upon recovery. That is an incentive we have put in place to encourage people to come forward to give information about stolen assets. You never tell if you give any information here, some of you may leave this place, multi-millionaire in your lifetime”, he said.

The EFCC’s boss, who drew rapturous applause from the crowd, pointed out that in less than three years of assuming office as head of Nigerian foremost anti-graft agency, the Commission has recovered more than half a billion dollars for the Nigerian government. “Within three years of my assumption of office, we’ve been able to forfeit both cash and assets worth over half a billion dollars to the government,” he said.

The recovery of the assets, he said, could be linked to the resourcefulness and professionalism of EFCC’s investigators, virile judiciary and access to credible intelligence. He linked the non-conviction-based asset forfeiture approach in Nigeria to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada. The framework, he explained, allowed the Commission to seek forfeiture of assets suspected to be proceeds of crime without waiting for a criminal conviction.

“We have similar to what is obtainable in Australia and Canada that empowers us to apply the forfeiture to proceeds of what is suspected to be proceeds of crime,” he said. Through the approach the anti-graft czar told his audience that an aircraft, a university, estates and houses suspected to be proceeds of crime had been forfeited to the government.

He particularly mentioned the 752 housing units recovered from a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele and the investigations of a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, which yielded the forfeiture of 48 out of the 57 houses suspected to be proceeds of corrupt practices.

EFCC

“Sometimes last year, I opened investigations upon reasonable suspicion of criminal abuse of office by the immediate past attorney-general of Nigeria. We discovered that within eight years of his being in office, we were able to trace about 57 such properties to him. We’ve been able to forfeit about 48”, he said.

The 43rd International symposium on economic crime holding in Cambridge is an annual event bringing together anti-corruption experts from across the world. Olukoyede’s presentation came on the third day of the weeklong event.
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Brazil Fines TikTok $30m Over Failure to Implement Child Safety

Brazil’s data protection agency on Tuesday fined TikTok nearly $30 million for failing to implement child safety measures in what it said was a “powerful signal” to social media companies.
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Brazil has taken a tough stance on the regulation of social media platforms, cracking down on disinformation and requiring users under 16 years to have their accounts linked to those of their parents.

An enforcement director with the ANPD data protection agency, Fabricio Lopes, told a press conference that TikTok “was not taking the necessary measures to prevent adolescents from accessing the platform and from having the data of these children and adolescents processed.”

This data was “being used to offer advertising to adolescents.”

He said the fine of 153.7m reais ($29.9 million) was a “powerful signal to other platforms regarding how seriously the ANPD takes this work” and that the agency hoped they “get the message.”

TikTok agreed last week to pay $400m to settle a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice over claims that the video-sharing platform collected children’s personal data without parental permission.

– Tougher enforcement –
This month, the ANPD also ordered popular streaming platform Discord to suspend livestreams and video calls after a teenage girl was allegedly encouraged to take her own life during a broadcast.

The agency told AFP that an appeal filed by Discord on Monday against the suspension is under review.

ANPD director Lorena Coutinho said the agency had, last week, initiated proceedings to verify the compliance of 22 social media networks and platforms with a law passed this year to protect children and teens online.

In addition to the fine, the ANPD ordered TikTok parent company ByteDance to delete data collected in violation of regulations.

Coutinho said TikTok had committed to suspend all adverts for users who are not logged in.

TikTok has committed to “implementing a compliance plan to improve the protection of children and adolescents,” the ANPD said.

Brazil Fines TikTok

The platform will be required to automatically apply stricter privacy settings to accounts belonging to children under the age of 16, strengthen parental supervision systems, and implement stricter content filters.

TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment from AFP.

In 2024, the platform X was blocked for 40 days in Brazil, until the social media network owned by the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, complied with the Supreme Court’s orders to remove accounts spreading disinformation.
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EFCC Grills Raheem Abiodun Wasiu for Alleged $12,000 Fraud in Enugu

Operatives of the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC have commenced investigations into the activities of one Raheem Abiodun Wasiu, an alleged serial fraudster, for an alleged case of fraud to the tune of $12,000 (Twelve Thousand United States Dollars).
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Wasiu, 38, was arrested by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, following a complaint by one Ezekulie Stanley Chukwuamuanya, a Bureau De Change operator who claimed that he was defrauded the sum of $5000 (Five Thousand United States Dollars) by the suspect.

In the course of investigation by operatives of the EFCC, it was discovered that the suspect rents different Toyota Hilux trucks, disguises as a wealthy contractor, moves with escorts and meets BDC operators in the south-east and allegedly tricks them into parting with their had earned money, by presenting fake alerts in Naira to them, after collecting their money.

According to Chukwumuanya, “I gave him the dollar and he counted it by himself. After confirmation, he then asked for my bank details. After giving him my account number, he mentioned my name that popped up on his bank application, I confirmed it. The next thing he told me was that it had gone through, which I waited for the alert to come, to no avail. Because of time, he asked me to go and that I will get it, that it could be network issues and I left because of his personality”. He alleged that soon after that, the suspect became incommunicado.

Another petitioner, based in Owerri, Imo State, one Chief Nwaoha Ubaferem equally alleged that Wasiu defrauded him of the sum of $7,000. He said, “the dollar on me was $2,600, then I called my office to bring additional $4,400 to me to complete it as he requested for $7,000. As we were waiting, he complained that he was running late and we decided to move to Royce Road from Port Harcourt Road where he finally collected the money from me, resumed transfer, called my name and informed me that the transfer had gone which I believed but continued to expect alert from him”.

EFCC

Further investigations revealed that the suspect has toured the South-east, and Akwa Ibom State, using the same pattern to allegedly defraud BDC operators.

Items recovered from the suspect include: A Hilux truck (Akwa Ibom KTR 379 AA), various bank ATM cards, different bank transfer tokens, digital National Identification Number slip with the name Sunday Abiodun, two complimentary cards with the name Engineer Abiodun, a designer bag (Emporio Amani), One iPhone 17 Promax, One Samsung phone, 4G internet pocket WIFI, One Patek Philip wrist watch, vehicle particulars, One gold bangle and a pair of shoes (Alexandra MC Queen).

The suspect will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
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