The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) has revealed that investigations into the alleged mismanagement of public funds are ongoing in about 18 states across the country.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, the commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, declined to identify the affected states, saying doing so could compromise ongoing investigations.
He disclosed that the probe extends beyond Osun State, whose statutory account was recently placed under temporary restriction by the anti-graft agency.
‘Like we said in the statement, there are about 18 other states that we have ongoing investigations,’ he said.
When pressed to disclose the states involved, Uwujaren replied: ‘I don’t want to start mentioning those states by name now.’
He rejected suggestions that the commission was shielding any government, insisting the decision was purely to safeguard the integrity of the investigations.
‘Not running away per se, but not to jeopardise the investigation that is currently ongoing,’ he said.
Uwujaren said the action against Osun was not unprecedented, recalling that the commission similarly restricted an Edo State Government account before Governor Monday Okpebholo assumed office.
‘Before, during the Edo State government, the Edo State election, before the coming of Governor Okpebholo, EFCC also took actions to restrict the account of that state government when we saw that funds were being moved to suspicious accounts.
‘And we were able to preserve $12 billion for them. That is why the current government was able to come on board and have resources to work.’
He maintained that the commission acts strictly within the law and does not single out any administration.
‘So this is not targeted at any particular government. We are simply doing our work under the law.’
Responding to questions about why a similar step was not taken during the Ekiti governorship election, Uwujaren said the situations were not comparable.
‘If you talk about what happened in Ekiti, we didn’t have any reason to intervene the way we are intervening now. And you don’t have access to the information that we have access to.’
He explained that only one statutory account belonging to the Osun State Government had been temporarily restricted, stressing that other government accounts remained operational.
‘We only targeted one statutory account, which is restricted, temporary restriction on that account. And it does not stop the government from operating other accounts that they have. It’s only one account that is frozen for now.’
Uwujaren said the EFCC has 72 hours to obtain a court order to sustain the restriction or lift it.
‘We have a 72 hours window to obtain a court order, which the commission is at liberty to do.
‘We have not exhausted that window, 72 hours, within which we either obtain a court order to continue to freeze it or lift the restriction on the other hand.’
On Osun State’s plan to challenge the action in court, he said the government was entitled to seek legal redress.
‘It’s within their right to take that decision today. If we think they are right to take that decision, we are also working on what we should do as an agency.’
Uwujaren added that the commission derived its authority from Section 34 of the EFCC Act and Section 7(6) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2022, which empower it to impose temporary restrictions on accounts suspected to be linked to suspicious transactions.
He also disclosed that the Osun investigation began in March and that several state officials had already been questioned.
‘But as it is now, I want to restate the fact that the Osun State case didn’t start today. It started way back in March. And a number of officials from that state have been interviewed in course of this investigation. So it didn’t just begin now.’