By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered N1.233 trillion, and $684.4 million in cash and assets in thirty-four months, securing ten thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two convictions from fourteen thousand, four hundred and seventy-six cases filed in court, reports thegazellenews.com
The Commission disclosed this in an operational performance report covering Sunday, 1 October, 2023, to Friday, 31 July, 2026, presented at the Executive Chairman’s media briefing.
It said it received 49,673 petitions within the period, investigated 39,615 of them, representing 79.8 per cent, and filed 14,476 cases in court, representing 36.5 per cent of petitions received.
It attributed the 75.1 per cent conviction rate to sustained investigative diligence and improved prosecutorial strategy.
A breakdown of the 46,288 offences recorded between 2024 and 2026 showed advance fee fraud topping the list with 20,726 cases, or 44.7 per cent, followed by cybercrime with 8,222 cases, or 17.7 per cent.
Bank fraud accounted for 5,338 cases, representing 11.5 per cent; economic governance fraud, 5,119 cases; land property fraud, 3,864 cases; money laundering, 1,101 cases; procurement fraud, 1,151 cases; and tax fraud, the lowest, with 921 cases.
The Commission said advance fee fraud and cybercrime alone accounted for 62.54 per cent of all recorded offences.
It also disclosed that it prosecuted 36 high-profile suspects within the period, cutting across government and the private sector.
Nine former state governors made the list, among them a former Kogi State Governor facing trial in four separate courts; a former Taraba State Governor, prosecuted alongside the state’s former Permanent Secretary, Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; a former Kwara State Governor, prosecuted with his aide-de-camp; a former Niger State Governor; two former Amantin State governors covering different administrative periods, one prosecuted alongside three others; and a former Benue State governor.
Five former federal ministers and a former Attorney-General of the Federation were arraigned, the report showed.
They included a former Minister of Power under the Obasanjo administration; a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice; a former Minister of Aviation, prosecuted alongside his brother; a former Defence Minister, alongside a political party chairman; and a former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management.
Three suspects from the banking and financial sector were prosecuted, comprising a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a former Managing Director of a commercial bank, and a former board chairman of a defunct bank.
Eleven former federal and state agency heads also stood trial, among them a former Chairman of the National Health Insurance Scheme, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, a former board chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, a former National Security Adviser, a former chairman of a defunct pension reform task force, a former National Coordinator of a multi-sectoral crisis recovery project, a former Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, and a former Accountant-General of the Federation.
Officials from the corporate sector and a member of the National Assembly were also being prosecuted for fraud and abuse of office, the Commission added.
On recoveries, the Commission said it retrieved N1,233,612,040,411.11 and $684,478,457.32 within the 34 months, alongside £373,905.78, €9,343,803.66, CFA 58,725,450, and Saudi Riyal 463,660, across sixteen currencies on five continents.
It explained that no combined all-currency total was quoted because a cross-currency aggregate would require an agreed foreign exchange valuation date, which had yet to be set. N71.01 billion and $18.29 million remained pending restitution to victims, it added.
Direct recoveries, which accrued to the Federal Government, totalled N397.26 billion and $192.29 million, representing 33 per cent of the overall sum.
The Commission described direct recoveries as cash and bank drafts held in its recovery account or with exhibit keepers, direct deposits in favour of the Federal Government, final forfeiture orders, rent remittances, and proceeds from the disposal of forfeited assets.
Indirect recoveries, channelled to individual and corporate victims, stood at N836.34 billion and $492.18 million, or 67 per cent of the total.
These, according to the Commission, comprised restitution to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, tax recoveries remitted to State Internal Revenue Services, direct restitution to victims, non-court-based recoveries, and interim-order funds frozen in affected accounts.
A year-on-year breakdown of naira recoveries showed N0.1 billion in direct funds and N66.7 billion in indirect funds in the last quarter of 2023, rising to N52.6 billion direct and N312 billion indirect in 2024.
In 2025, direct recoveries jumped to N278.5 billion, a 429 per cent year-on-year growth, while indirect recoveries stood at N242.8 billion, pushing total naira recoveries for the year to N521.3 billion, the highest within the period and a 43 per cent rise over 2024.
In the first half of 2026 alone, the Commission recovered N201.9 billion, N48.9 billion of it direct and N153 billion indirect, a figure it noted had not been annualised.
Dollar recoveries followed a similar trajectory. The Commission recovered $0.2 million direct and $8.2 million indirect in the last quarter of 2023, rising to $10.7 million direct and $99.3 million indirect in 2024, then to $55.8 million direct and $315.8 million indirect in 2025, the peak year for indirect dollar recoveries.
In the first half of 2026, direct dollar recoveries climbed to $123.7 million, against $62.8 million indirect.
The Commission said the $123.7 million recovered directly in 2026 alone exceeded, by 86 per cent, the $66.7 million recovered directly across October 2023, 2024 and 2025 combined, meaning the half-year direct haul in 2026 had already surpassed the previous two years put together.
Other currencies recovered within the period included £368,655.78, €9,342,493.66, CFA 18,157,950, and Saudi Riyal 463,660.
