By Dele Oyewale
The Punch Editorial of October 30, 2025, on the anti-corruption fight in Nigeria, lacks objectivity and a proper understanding of the issues involved in the war against graft. Its caricature of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's (EFCC) asset recovery efforts is particularly worrisome.
Across the world, asset recovery remains a potent weapon against fraudulent and corrupt practices.
There is no better tool for disarming, disrupting, and defeating illicit acquisitions than depriving the corrupt of their proceeds of crime.
The World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are so enamoured with this framework that they continue to promote the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) globally.
To these two international bodies, asset recovery strengthens the fight against corruption, impunity, and primitive accumulation of wealth.
Describing the efforts of a Commission that energetically recovered ₦566 billion, $411 million, and 1,502 non-monetary assets, among other sterling recoveries within two years of its Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede’s, appointment as a “narrative painted in triumphant strokes” is uncharitable and belittling.
What would The Punch have preferred, allowing the corrupt to continue enjoying the spoils of their brigandage?
What purpose is served by glossing over the developmental needs that the recovered assets are already addressing across the country, such as NELFUND and CREDIT CORP, simply because “the identities of the culprits, the scale of the net cast, and the unyielding pursuit of justice” are not yet in place?
Would The Punch have preferred that the Commission look the other way and allow 7,503 convicts to continue their fraudulent activities until the untouchable titans who siphon billions from public coffers” are convicted?
Commentaries on the EFCC’s scorecard are significant, but they must be couched in objectivity, deep reflection, broad-based analysis, and global referencing.
There is no anti-corruption agency anywhere in the world that has made a record arrest of 792 suspected fraudsters in a single operation.
There is no other location on the planet where 753 units of duplexes and other apartments have been uncovered and forfeited to the government.
Nor is there any other country that has deported 192 fraudsters arrested and convicted for similar offences.
These milestones failed to impress The Punch, perhaps because ministers and governors are missing from the list of convicts.
Blaming delays in the resolution of corruption cases, presidential pardons of convicted Nigerians, and other extraneous matters on the EFCC is like blaming a priest for inadequate rainfall or a cloudy sky.
Taunting Mr Olukoyede over the progress of the Yahaya Bello matter is petty and mischievous.
There is no promise made by the Executive Chairman in that case that he has not fulfilled.
He vowed to arrest and prosecute the former governor, and he has done exactly that.
The case is now before the court. What else does The Punch expect Olukoyede to do, grab Bello and dump him in jail without recourse to due process?
The hubris in the editorial appears disguised to deny the EFCC its flowers. The same newspaper that now berates the Commission for not jailing all politically exposed persons had, in its editorial of June 10, 2025, titled Corruption: Speedy Trials Needed, Not Rhetoric, chronicled the issues hindering the expeditious determination of corruption cases in court.
The trigger for that editorial was the conviction of two oil marketers, Mamman Ali and Christian Taylor, whose trial lasted 14 years for a ₦2.2 billion oil subsidy fraud.
Punch conveniently ignores the fact that the EFCC did not arrest Ali and Taylor from a cybercafé.
And referencing cybercafés as hideouts for internet fraudsters in today’s digital age shows that the newspaper is out of tune with the shifting dynamics of cybercrime.
Admittedly, there is still much ground to cover in breaking the siege of corruption in Nigeria.
However, the steady and consistent breakthroughs of the EFCC in weakening and withering the corrosive layers of graft across the country deserve recognition.
Only a few days ago, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Nigeria from its infamous grey list, a feat that would not have been possible without the EFCC’s redoubtable efforts.
Is Punch unaware of this? If other nations commend Nigeria for strengthening its anti-corruption architecture, it is perplexing that a respected medium like The Punch would align itself with cynics who see nothing good in the Commission’s efforts.
Detractors of the anti-corruption war are bent on undermining the EFCC’s commitment to tackling internet fraud and related offences.
Yet, it is the same genre of fraudsters attacking critical sectors of the economy, particularly the financial sector, and worsening global perceptions of Nigeria’s integrity. Internet fraud, popularly dubbed the “Nigerian scam”, is largely responsible for the country’s unimpressive ranking on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
The world feels the sting of internet fraud like a spreading cancer, yet the EFCC’s handling of the crime is dismissed as overzealous. What, then, should the Commission do?
In the last two years, through the Commission’s passionate efforts, the preventive framework for tackling corruption has taken firm root.
The nation has saved enormous sums through this strategy. Olukoyede’s Department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control (FRAC) is an idea that is gaining traction and breaking the backbone of graft.
This innovative approach aligns with global trends in defanging corruption.
The Commission remains focused on this mission and will not be deterred. An editorial that fails to recognise such forward-thinking measures cannot be said to be socially beneficial.
The Punch knows better than to urge the Commission to prosecute the untouchables with swift, transparent fury, as its mandate does not extend to performing the judiciary’s role.
Nor can it institute safeguards against unjust pardons, since that is beyond its statutory powers.
In the final analysis, truth, like water, will one day find its level. Nigeria is surely better and stronger with the EFCC.
Oyewale is Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC.
All rights reserved. The content on this website, including text and other digital materials, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of The News Accelerator Network.
For advertising inquiries, news coverage, or press releases, please get in touch with us at
📧 thenewsacceleratornetwork@gmail.com
📞 08051017159, 08173970030
Kindly follow us on: https://www.facebook.com/thenewsaccelerator
You can also subscribe to our YouTube channels here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVELRC3WinKZ7tdmhmZaRmQ?sub_confirmation=1
إرسال تعليق