It is already a year that the anti-corruption agency moved to its permanent headquarter. ELEOJO IDACHABA, in this report, looks at the benefits of an expanded office space in the light of its campaign against corruption.
April 10, 2019 marked the 16thanniversary of the establishment of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC). By all measures, it has been 16 years of anti-corruption fight. However, it is worth recalling that the success story of the commission took root in a small beginning at No 15A, Awolowo Road and 10 Okotie Eboh Street in Ikoyi, Lagos and in a one room office apartment of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) Abuja.
From this humble beginning, the commission carved a niche for itself as the nemesis of the corrupt, an identity it has sustained over the years.
In the immediate recent past, the commission operated as a tenant in its Abuja office at No 5 Fomella Street, Wuse 2. To augment further space arrangement, it rented an adjacent block within same premises and re-designated it.
Outside Fomella street, the commission carved out an office space in the Presidential Villa with another one in Danube Street in Maitama area. However, its Legal and Asset Forfeiture unit was in yet another location in Wuse 2.
According to Mr Tony Orilade, the acting spokesman of the commission, “It was risky and tiring, coordinating the huge activities in the head office from these far apart offices, especially for an intelligence outfit which should be heard and not seen,” he said.
Nevertheless, May 15, 2018 brought a new narrative when the commission finally relocated to its over N18billion prestigious headquarters in the Jabi district of the nation’s capital.
In this new office, aside the 10 storey steel-cladded edifice, there are other facilities that the commission had badly needed. This ranged from a 16.800sqm parking lot for staff and visitors to turnkey forensic laboratory block, luxuriously gender-separate cell blocks and self-contained medical block seated in a five-hectare stretch.
Journey to permanent site and convictions
The journey actually began in 2011 with the foundation laying ceremony. In spite of financial constraints, it was delivered seven years after precisely on May 15, 2018.
Within the first quarter of 2019, the commission has been able to beat every record of achieving 340 convictions, establishing strongly that the 315 record convictions it secured between January and December 2018 will increase in both figure and significance, this year.
Between May 15, 2018 and May 15, 2019 which marks the first anniversary of relocation to the new head office, the commission consummated high profile cases and earned convictions, including those of two former state governors like Jolly Nyame (Taraba) and Joshua Dariye (Plateau), who both bagged 14-year jail terms each without option of fine.
While the appellate court added a fine of over N400 million to Nyame’s sentence, it reduced his jail time to 12 years and that of Dariye to 10. These two convictions were unprecedented watershed in the annals of the country’s fight against corruption.
That of Air Vice-Marshall Tony Omenyi (rtd) also fell within this range. He was committed to seven year- jail term without an option of fine by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of a Federal High Court, Abuja on February 28 2019, having been found guilty of the amended three-count charges brought against him by the EFCC.
Justice Dimgba, also ordered Huzee Nigeria Limited, a body corporate owned by Omenyi to forfeit N60,000,000to the federal government.
In the area of recoveries within the period, the sum of N11.5billion was recorded in final forfeiture, N133.8billion in non-forfeiture recoveries, N8.92billion in direct deposits, N38.12billion in tax recoveries, N1.82billion in subsidy recoveries, and N42billion from banks (third party) all amounting to N236billion.
These are in addition to recoveries of various sums in other currencies, assets, jewelleries (gold) and recoveries for major government agencies including NNPC and AMCON.
Within the first quarter of 2019, the commission has made recoveries which included N205.9 million in cash, N2.7 billion in draft, $310, 718, 13, 500 pounds, 700 Euros, N5.6billion direct deposits.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court on March 8, 2019, in a unanimous judgement, dismissed the appeal of a former first lady, Patience Jonathan, against the interim forfeiture order of Federal High Court, Lagos to the federal government in the sum of $8,400,000traced to her by the commission and believed to be proceeds of crime.
Similarly, on March 14, 2019, the Nigerian apex court also dismissed an application by Mrs Jonathan, which sought to upturn the interim forfeiture order by a Federal High Court, Lagos placed on the sum of N2.4 billion linked to her.
It could also be recalled that the late former Chief of Defence Staff, late Alex Badeh on March 4, 2019 forfeited six choice properties and $1,000,000 to the federal government on the order of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
To checkmate the menace of vote buying in the 2019 general elections, the commission came up with a country-wide intervention.
Explaining the reason, the acting chairman Ibrahim Magu noted that, “Vote buying is corruption that is fundamental because if you buy votes, it follows that you must recoup what you have spent, when you find your way into office.”
This campaign also resonated in all the 14 zonal offices of the commission, with the common denominator that the menace is not just a financial crime, but casts a slur on the integrity of elections. Several arrests were made as well as cash seizures running into millions of naira. For instance, the commission also secured the conviction of a councillor, Ishyaku Garba, in Gombe state.
Justice Sa’ad Mohammed of the state High Court jailed Garba for three months with N100,000 option of fine following his arraignment on a three-count charge bothering on election bribery. According to Orilade, “The cheery news is that the ubiquitous nature of the commission’s operatives at polling stations across the country ensured that the ugly trend only occurred in places without the knowledge of the commission.”
It is worth recalling within the period under review that the commission leveraged on the office space to embark on a recruitment drive, increasing its human capital with the full enrolment of 314 Assistant Detective Superintendents and 183 Assistant Detective Inspectors following the completion of their training programme in May and January 2018, respectively and 293 Assistant Detective Inspectors currently undergoing training in Nigeria Defence Academy, (NDA) Kaduna. Also, 95 support staff were engaged in the commission in January 2019.
With the improved staff strength, the commission expanded its zonal offices from 11 to 14 with the establishment of three new zonal offices in Makurdi, Sokoto and Ilorin.
All these strides, however, have come with added financial worries considering the dwindling allocation from the government.
For instance, in 2019, the commission will grapple with only N3.6billion overhead allocation that shrank from N7.3billion approved in 2018 in the face of increased running cost occasioned by additional zonal offices, the planned staff life insurance of N650million and huge outlays on running alternative power source.
Others are increase in airfares and proposed 60 per cent increase in the rates of duty tour allowance (DTA) payable to staff on official assignments.
The capital budget allocation was also diminished by the Budget Office from N15.196 billion in 2018 to N3.978 billion presently. This is amidst challenges like the commission’s N2.02billion outstanding liabilities to Julius Berger; N1.5billion cost on the new head office complex; N0.299billion liabilities for consultancy on the new head office; N0.47billion for purchase of security equipment (ammunition); N1.1billion on furnishing the head office building.
Others in this category are the development of the permanent site of the EFCC Academy in Lafia, renovation of the old EFCC head office building and the renovation of the Lagos zonal office.
Also begging for financial attention are the challenge of managing the huge and growing fixed asset forfeiture base of the commission and inadequate ICT infrastructure. There is presently a zero presence of internet services at the new head office and zonal offices and other ICT-related service deliveries which will gulp up to N800million.
