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By Tony Egbulefu
Driving the affairs of Africa’s foremost anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is no peaches and cream. The aggravated corrupt system we operate has entrenched hoops that are designed to ensure that every effort against corruption, economic and financial crimes fall through, no matter how well thought out. By some other twists, the obstacles to ethical standards in our systems are further conceived to exasperate or befuddle anyone that steps out to do good.
Even as the challenges stack up, Ola Olukoyede, the man at EFCC’s helm of affairs, remains undaunted, with record-shattering recoveries, amazing number of prosecutions and convictions, efficient fraud prevention mechanisms and institutional and operational reforms.
The heightened quality of enforcement by the EFCC has in the recent weeks found greater expression in foolproof investigations and diligent prosecutions that clearly impressed judges.
On Thursday, February 5, 2026, the Commission secured the conviction and sentence of the former managing director, Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Mr Roberts Orya, to 490 years imprisonment for fraud. He was arraigned in 2021 and prosecuted on a 49-count charge, bordering on obtaining money by false pretences, forgery and advance fee fraud to the tune of N2.4 billion.
Justice F.E. Messiri of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Abuja, who found him guilty on all the charges, slammed him with the maximum 10 years jail time, each.
Anyone conversant with the rigours of investigation and prosecution will not agree less that it takes diligence and application to prove 49-count charges beyond reasonable doubt, especially against a defendant of means.
Orya served as the managing director of NEXIM Bank between 2009 and 2016, having been appointed to the position on August 14, 2009 by late President Umaru Yar’Adua and reappointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan on August 18, 2014.
It was no different between the Commission and the former acting Accountant General of the Federation as well as former Director, Finance and Account in the Federal Ministry of Defence, Mr. Chukwunyere Anamekwe Nwabuoku. On Monday, March 23, 2026, the EFCC secured Nwabuoku’s conviction and sentence to 72 years jail time without an option of fine before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja.
He was arraigned in July, 2024 alongside his four shell companies that are at large: Temeeo Synergy Concept Limited, Turge Global Investment Limited, Laptev Bridge Limited and Arafura Transnational Afro Limited. They were prosecuted on a nine-count charge, bordering on money laundering to the tune of N868, 465,000 (Eight Hundred and Sixty-eight Million, Four Hundred and Sixty-five Thousand Naira).
The money he converted to personal use was meant for the financing of operations in the Ministry of Defence. Again, all the nine-counts were proven against him, earning him eight years on each, and cumulative 72 years imprisonment. In jailing Nwabuoku, the judge held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and provided concrete evidence to buttress the charges against him.
March 25, 2026, being less than 72 hours on the bounce, the Commission secured an order of the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Emeka Nwite, for the final forfeiture of the sum of $13 million linked to Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd and its alter ego, Ms Aisha Achimugu.
Earlier, on August 22, 2025, the Commission had secured an order for an interim forfeiture of the said amount to the government on account of a reasonable suspicion that the said money was proceeds of unlawful activity.
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To earn the final forfeiture, the EFCC established that Oceangate Engineering Company did not show the business it undertook that fetched it the money and did not prove that the money was by any means a payment made to it by its customer or customers.
The $13 million forfeiture was the second incident of final forfeiture of money whose owner could not prove how the funds were earned. The first was on Monday, September 15, 2025, when Justice Nwite, following a final forfeiture application filed by Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, counsel for the EFCC, ordered the final forfeiture of $7 million lodged under cloudy circumstances in a new-generation bank.
The sum was not credited to any customer account but curiously stashed away in the bank’s vault. Unlike the $13m, the owners of the $7milion could not muster the courage to set foot in court to claim the money as legit.
Consequently, the judge held that EFCC’s application was meritorious and ordered its final forfeiture to the federal government.
After ten years of prosecution, the Commission on February 27, 2026, earned yet another milestone victory with the conviction and sentence of Engr. Nnaemeka Nwawka, managing director, Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, and Sage Nebeife Foundation to 14 years imprisonment, each by Justice O. M. Anyachebelu of the Anambra State High Court, sitting in Awka. They were prosecuted on a 10-count charge, bordering on stealing, conversion of other people’s money to personal use and gratification to the tune of N25 billion.
Nwawka and his foundation got their comeuppance when one Chief Cletus Ibeto petitioned the Commission over his N25 billion investment in Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, which he channelled to his Sage Nebeife Foundation and converted to personal use in an intricate round tripping scheme.
In addition to Nwawka’s conviction and sentence, he will, alongside his foundation, refund the sum of N140, 900, 000 (One Hundred and Forty Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira) to Orient Petroleum Resources Plc.
Similarly, the Court of Appeal on March 9, 2026 affirmed the conviction and sentence of the former Group Managing Director of Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL), Major General Umar Mohammed, for offences that border on stealing and misappropriation of the company’s funds to the tune of N1.65 billion and $2.09 million.
The EFCC had initiated court proceedings against him, but being a serving army officer, the matter wound up in a court martial. The military court on October 10, 2023 convicted him of the offences and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on the strength of the Commission’s diligent investigations. It further ordered him to refund the sum of $2,099,700 and N1.65 billion to the NAPL, being what he stole.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the military court, he approached the appellate court. Again, the EFCC followed through and saw to his second loss.
These landmark decisions in corruption cases by the courts poignantly underscores the quiet revolution in EFCC’s approach to investigation and case management over the past two and half years. Olukoyode had sworn that under his watch that no half-baked investigation would find its way to the docket of judges. Their lordships have also reciprocated, seeing the quality of prosecution by the agency had improved. In all of this, the winner is Nigeria and the fight against corruption. The appeal is that all Nigerians who believe in probity and accountability should queue behind the EFCC and its leadership towards the sustenance of the tempo.
• Egbulefu, is of the Public Affairs Directorate of the EFCC
