Of late, it’s been a big outing for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in the fight to recover looted funds. Luxury homes, estates, cash and exotic vehicles were among the latest recoveries on behalf of the government. It has never been easy to take back what is stolen from the people. It’s like closing the stable after the horse had bolted.

Not that the laws are weak, no. Anti-corruption laws in the country are good enough to fight graft in the public space, but political affiliations and interference are the real problems.The fight is selective and Nigerians are not impressed.

For instance, once looters find their ways into the caucus of the ruling party as it is today, anti-graft processes against them take back-stage. Many of the leaders of today’s All Progressives Congress (APC), have running cases with the EFCC, some since their days in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Some cases are stuck because the owners have become too entrenched in President Tinubu’s kitchen cabinet. Some are top lawmakers, before whom, the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies go to for their yearly budget defence or for other matters.

An anecdote was narrated of the experience of the management team of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), who went before the National Assembly for a particular engagement. It turned out that the Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions at the time, that was to engage the AMCON team comprised of some confirmed loan defaulters with whom AMCON had running cases in court. And they were the ones to decide the wellbeing or otherwise of AMCON.

If appointments are carried out by the Presidency, it is the same questionable characters in the National Assembly that would confirm them. That is how it is with virtually all anti-corruption agencies that interface with lawmakers. They are forced to surrender to their regular ‘customers’ and such encounters do not enhance the fight against corruption.

So, in the National Assembly and elsewhere in the polity, corruption suspects are able to wangle their escape from EFCC’s net since the regime of Nuhu Ribadu at the EFCC between April 2003 to December 2007. Ribadu had conclusively investigated some cases, including the first set of governors in this dispensation.

General Buhari made some initial recoveries before the culprits found the solution to their problem: decamp and your sins are forgiven. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is credited with that solution. If the sins are not forgiven outright, cases are deliberately left to fossilise and become dormant.

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, have pending cases with EFCC. The Commission cannot abandon those cases because Nigerians are interested.

That’s not all. The mode of appointment of chairpersons of anti-graft agencies is usually a major setback to fighting corruption. They are appointed by the president, not based on merit but on political or social affiliation.

Such appointees owe an obligation first to the president, before any other patriotic consideration. That MoU is not written in black and white, but the body language of Mr President and the meddlesomeness of fixers in his front office often dictate how fast and well the anti-graft war is fought.

Take for instance, the drama that preluded the arrest of Yahaya Bello, former governor of Kogi State, after his tenure expired in 2024 and he no longer enjoyed immunity. Immunity is the cover governors hide behind to escape prosecution. By the time Bello left office, he was expected to surrender to the EFCC, which had concluded investigation on him. But Bello resisted arrest and Abuja was not embarrassed.

The EFCC first obtained a warrant and attempted to arrest him on April 17, 2024, at his Abuja residence. It failed. He was then declared officially wanted for allegedly laundering N80.2 billion, among other fraud cases.

The EFCC then went to court, but Bello refused to be summoned, until September 2024, when he casually visited EFCC and returned home unmolested. It was on November 26, 2024, that Bello voluntarily surrendered, after exhausting everybody for seven months and making sure the matter had lost verve and momentum.

The antics of Bello and cohorts sufficiently punished the EFCC to the extent that Ola Olukoyede swore to resign if he did not prosecute Bello.

In all of that drama of evading arrest, the police and the Federal Government that own the monopoly of force looked away. A leak shared at the time suggested that a hefty sum in foreign currency was deposited at a particularly notorious front office to procure authority indifference.

The matter is still dragging in court, but Bello has been cleared by APC as candidate for Kogi Central. Who knows, in case he wins and becomes a senator, he might be drafted to the committee that oversees EFCC and ICPC in the 11th Legislative Assembly.

Despite all that, it remainsngood news that the EFCC is able to make big recoveries from big players in the previous administration.The Federal High Court in Abuja, ordered the final forfeiture of 48 out of 57 properties worth N212 billion, linked to the former Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.

Judge Joyce Abdumalmalik granted the final forfeiture application filed by the EFCC and dismissed several objections by Malami, his family members and some companies claiming ownership. They are located in Abuja, Kebbi, Kano and Kaduna states. They include luxury hotels, duplexes, plazas, warehouses, shopping units and residential estates. The grotesque list is an embarrassment to the public service and perhaps, how easy to amass so much within just eight years.

The bone of contention, as far as the forfeiture order is concerned is how legitimate were the funds used to acquire the properties, not much about ownership. Malami and company have indicated they would appeal the order. But for now, the properties are forfeited.

The doggedness of the investigation deserves praise; how the properties scattered across states were identified and traced. It takes some effort to do that. It suggests that if the anti-graft agencies desire to work, they can ferret out suspicious investments and fictitious ownerships.

On July 17, the Supreme Court affirmed the final forfeiture of seven landed properties, the sum of $2,045,000 and share certificates, linked to former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to the Federal Government.

The EFCC, again exhibited tenacity by challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal, which earlier reversed the judgment of the trial court that was not in Emefiele’s favour.

Emefiele has thus forfeited; a fully detached duplex of identical structures situated at No 17B Hakeem Odumosu Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos; an undeveloped parcel of land situated at Oyinka Abayomi Drive, Ikoyi Lagos; a bungalow, a four-bedroom duplex situated in Ikoyi; a four-bedroom duplex situated in Ikoyi and an industrial complex under construction on 22 plots of land in Agbor, Delta State; as well as eight units of undetached apartments in Ikoyi Lagos. Quite a handful!

The original forfeiture order was granted in November 2024, by Justice D.I. Dipeolu of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, in a suit filed by the EFCC. The properties were suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities. Emefiele is entangled in other fraud cases, including a 753-unit housing estate located in Abuja, illegal printing of new naira notes and unauthorised withdrawals.

The EFCC has shown commitment in both Emefiele and Malami trials. Nigerians want the anti-graft commission to put in same zeal in all corruption cases and not to be seen as selective. Malami and Emefiele both have private axe to grind with President Tinubu.

Malami was justice minister for the APC government of Buhari, which Tinubu claimed he was committed to. However, Malami has since left the APC for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which is the major opposition party challenging APC ahead of 2027 elections.

Some have whispered that if Malami had stayed quiet and loyal within APC, and also releasing some of the excess cash to support the Renewed Hope campaigns, perhaps the long list of assets he acquired would have gone unnoticed by the prying eyes of EFCC’s Eagle. Since he is with the opposition, he needed to be stripped of wealth and political influence. That’s the thinking out there.

For Emefiele, as CBN governor, some bank policies were seen to be directed at frustrating candidate Tinubu in 2022. For instance, the currency redesign and cashless policies made no immediate economic sense apart from seeking to make it difficult for candidates to spend raw cash. Emefiele also aspired to join the presidential race of 2023, a sort of conspiracy to make the contest rough for Tinubu. He courted trouble by his own making.

As resounding as these victories are for EFCC and the government, Nigerians feel it is just a drop in the ocean of looters. If these two could amass so much just within their eight years of service to themselves, just imagine what some governors have stashed away, home and abroad, but have quietly stayed under the radar. Nigerians want anti-graft agencies to go the whole hog and not be selective.

Curiously, last week, the Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, restrained the EFCC from proceeding with its planned investigation into the finances of the Oyo State Government. Justice Nkeonye Maha, acknowledged the powers of EFCC to investigate, but said that the exercise must be consistent with the Constitution, and not to embark on a speculative fishing expedition.

It turned out that the EFCC had written to the Oyo State Government on June 2, 2025, demanding copies of all contracts and details of transactions and payments from 2021 to date. Oyo government said the demand was oppressive and burdensome, and also unreasonable. The EFCC said it has powers to make blanket investigations into any state’s finances.

There is the suspicion that Makinde is being singled out. The man alleges political witch-hunt.

Takeaway. Let’s stop politicising the anti-graft war.