The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede has slammed flayed a suit before the Supreme Court seeking to declare the agency illegal.
Olukoyede spoke when the Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Emmanuel Udende, led members of the panel on an oversight visit to the headquarters of the agency in Abuja.
According to Udende, the anti-corrupt agency has in the last one year recovered the sum of N248 billion, $105.4 million, and other foreign currencies.
Olukoyede called on the National Assembly to support the agency in terms of changing the negative perception of Nigerians about it as well as increasing its allocation in the 2025 budget to enable it acquire requisite state of the art technology to fight illicit financial flows, economic sabotage and monitor trading of crypto and other virtual currencies in the country.
The Federal Government, represented by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) have challenged the competence of the suit which it described as a threat to the ongoing fight against corruption and financial crimes in the country.
Although the suit, marked: SC/CV/178/2023, was originally brought before the court by Kogi state, however, some of the states applied and were joined as co-plaintiffs while others filed applications for their own suit to be consolidated with the extant matter.
