EFCC chairman: Politicians now declaring assets before acquisition

*How politician declared N3bn non-existent property in CCB Form

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that many Nigerian politicians are now perfecting the antics of anticipatory declaration of assets to justify their intended stealing of public funds and other acts of corruption.

The EFCC chairman disclosed this while speaking at the launch of the Virtual Tool on the Code of Conduct for Public Officers organized by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in collaboration with the Technical Unit on Good Governance and Anti-corruption Reforms (TUGAR) in Abuja on Tuesday,  August 12, 2025.

Explaining how anticipatory asset declaration is done, Olukoyede said: “There is an investigation we carried out and we discovered something not too strange that proves how criminally smart some of our politically exposed persons carry out some of the various activities we investigate them for.

“I asked my boys to get the CCB form because there is something we were not clear about and we discovered one of the very big properties valued over N3 billion that the person declared in the CCB form carried an address different from the address of the location of the property.

“I felt something was awry here. We decided to dig further and after more interrogation, we discovered that the person declared the property when the property was not in existence.”

The EFCC boss urged the leadership of CCB to take note of such criminality and intensify investigation through innovative ways to  curtail corruption.

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The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, stated that the bedrock of public service is adherence to standards and ethics of service.

The AGF applauded the virtual tool designed by the CCB as a significant milestone in the digitisation and technological investigation of public conduct, stating that it will promote preventive compliance and awareness.

He enjoined public servants to embrace the new tool for enhanced conduct in public service.

Also speaking at the event, the Head of Service, Didi Esther Walson- Jack, said: “We must leverage on technology to solve problems. It is faster, smarter, and more transparent. Without conduct and ethics no reform will last. Ethical governance is not optional.

“The benefit of this tool is  that it is accessible, easy to use, cost effective and promotes transparency that enables tracking and compliance.”

On his part, the CCB Chairman, Abdullahi Usman Bello, explained that the tool will make public officers to be accountable and  easy to use.

“The tool will ensure that public servants carry out their duties in high esteem and  educate them on the step to step rules and regulations that guides them,” he said.

The Star