EFCC Chairman Reveals How Local Government Funds Were Diverted Into Cryptocurrency Wallets
Abuja — The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed how public funds were allegedly diverted from a local government account into a private company before being transferred into cryptocurrency wallets, in a scheme the commission’s chairman described as evidence of the increasingly sophisticated methods now being used to move suspected illicit funds in Nigeria.
EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede made the disclosure while addressing media executives and journalists in Abuja on Monday, though he declined to name the specific local government, private company, or state involved in the transaction. According to Olukoyede, the suspicious movement was first detected by the commission’s Fraud Risk Assessment and Control Department, which intervened by freezing the account for 72 hours in order to establish the destination and underlying purpose of the funds. He explained that the commission’s approach was increasingly focused on intercepting suspicious transactions before they could be completed, rather than waiting until public funds had already disappeared before launching an investigation.
Olukoyede used the briefing to push back against recent public criticism, including calls for his removal, that followed the commission’s decision to freeze the account. He defended the intervention as a necessary and proactive response, insisting that law enforcement agencies could not afford to look away simply because money appeared to be moving through official channels. He noted that the disclosure comes against the backdrop of an earlier controversy in August, when the EFCC froze an account belonging to the Osun State Government just days before the state’s August 15 governorship election, although he did not link the local government case he described to Osun State or any other specific state.
The EFCC chairman further explained that cybercrime in Nigeria has evolved considerably beyond its traditional association with online romance and advance-fee fraud schemes, alleging that some young Nigerians are increasingly being used as intermediaries by public officials seeking to move allegedly stolen funds through cryptocurrency platforms registered in their names. According to Olukoyede, this pattern has made it significantly harder for investigators to trace conventional, tangible assets back to certain officials under scrutiny, since diverted funds are instead channelled into digital wallets controlled by third parties.
On the broader regulatory front, Olukoyede disclosed that the commission had developed stronger capacity to trace cryptocurrency transactions, particularly those linked to virtual asset platforms licensed to operate within Nigeria, noting that around 40 such platforms have now been formally licensed as part of efforts to strengthen oversight of the sector. He also revealed that the EFCC had successfully recovered virtual assets connected to the CBEX fraud case, though he acknowledged that managing confiscated cryptocurrency previously posed significant accountability challenges for the commission. To address this, he disclosed that the Federal Government has since approved the creation of a national confiscation wallet, which will now serve as the designated repository for virtual assets recovered by law enforcement agencies going forward.
Olukoyede’s disclosures add to a growing body of evidence highlighting the evolving methods used to conceal and move allegedly stolen public funds in Nigeria, as the EFCC continues to press for stronger technological tools and regulatory frameworks to keep pace with the increasing use of cryptocurrency in financial crime across the country.
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