The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has revealed that it is investigating about 18 states over allegations of public fund mismanagement, but declined to disclose the identities of the affected states.
The commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, made the disclosure during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday while addressing questions over the agency’s recent restriction placed on one of the Osun State Government’s accounts.
According to him, the action against Osun is one of several measures the commission has taken or is considering in relation to ongoing investigations involving state governments.
“There are about 18 other states that we have ongoing investigations,” Uwujaren said.
When asked to identify the states, he declined, explaining that doing so could compromise the investigations.
“I don’t want to start mentioning those states by name now… not to jeopardise the investigation that is currently ongoing,” he said.
Uwujaren said the commission had previously taken similar action in Edo State before Governor Monday Okpebholo assumed office, following intelligence that public funds were being moved into suspicious accounts.
“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. We were able to preserve funds for them, which enabled the current government to have resources to work with,” he stated.
He maintained that the commission’s actions were guided strictly by law and not targeted at any particular administration.
“This is not targeted at any particular government. We are simply doing our work under the law,” Uwujaren said.
Responding to questions on why the EFCC did not take similar action during the Ekiti State governorship election, he said the circumstances were different and based on intelligence available to the commission.
“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 added.
Uwujaren clarified 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. It is a temporary restriction and does not stop the government from operating its other accounts,” he explained.
He further stated that the EFCC has a 72-hour window to obtain a court order to sustain the restriction or lift it.
“We have a 72-hour window to obtain a court order. We have not exhausted that period, within which we will either secure the order to continue the restriction or lift it,” he said.
On the Osun State Government’s decision to challenge the action in court, Uwujaren said the state was entitled to seek legal redress, adding that the commission would also respond appropriately.
“It is within their right to take that decision, and we are also working on what we should do as an agency,” he noted.
Uwujaren said the commission derived its authority to temporarily restrict accounts from Section 34 of the EFCC Act and Section 7(6) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2022.
“Those provisions give us the power to place temporary restrictions on any account where we suspect suspicious activities. We then have 72 hours to obtain a court order or lift the restriction,” he said.
He also disclosed that the investigation involving Osun State did not begin recently, noting that it commenced in March and had already involved the interrogation of several government officials.
“The Osun State case didn’t start today. It started in March, and a number of officials from the state have already been interviewed during the course of the investigation,” Uwujaren said.
