The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has exposed a new ploy by some politicians to legitimise ill-gotten assets before assuming public office.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the launch of a virtual tool on the Code of Conduct for public officers, EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede revealed that certain politically exposed persons now engage in what the commission calls “anticipatory declaration of assets.”
According to Olukoyede, this tactic involves declaring ownership of high-value properties in asset declaration forms before the properties even exist — with the intention of acquiring them later using stolen funds.
“There was an investigation we carried out… we discovered that one of the very big properties valued well over N3bn that the person declared in the CCB form was non-existent at the time,” Olukoyede said. “After the person won an election, before he was sworn in, he got the asset declaration form and listed a mansion as bequeathed to him by whomever he couldn’t mention. By the time we investigated, we discovered the asset did not exist — it was designed in advance for when he would get into office.”
He explained that the suspect had already registered the property in the land registry and completed architectural designs for the mansion before being sworn in. “Before he was sworn in, he had started thinking about the money to steal and what to do with the money,” Olukoyede added.
The EFCC boss warned that the trend is likely to grow and called for closer scrutiny of asset declaration forms to detect such schemes early. “Leaders must not be allowed to plan their looting before they even take the oath of office,” he stressed.
The event, organised by the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms in collaboration with the Code of Conduct Bureau, aims to strengthen ethics, accountability, and governance in Nigeria’s public service.
Also speaking, Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, hailed the new virtual tool as a “historic milestone” in the fight against corruption. “Today is a bold statement that we are dedicated to instilling integrity, transparency, and the highest form of accountability at the very heart of public service in our dear country,” he said.
