The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has dismissed more than 40 members of staff over corruption and financial misconduct in the last two and a half years, its Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has said.
Olukoyede disclosed this on Monday while addressing media executives and journalists in Abuja.
He said more than five of the dismissed officers are currently facing prosecution, while case files involving others are being prepared for legal action.
“In the past two and a half years or three years of my service, I have asked them to dismiss over 40 staff on account of corruption and financial malpractice,” he said. “More than five of them are being prosecuted at the moment. You can follow those cases in court; they are public knowledge.”
The EFCC chairman argued that the commission’s officers cannot credibly fight corruption while being complicit in corrupt practices themselves. He said new internal measures had been introduced to strengthen staff accountability, including a revised gift policy requiring personnel to declare gifts above a set value, including those received from relatives abroad. According to him, the commission will determine which categories and monetary thresholds of gifts staff may accept, a move he said would make it easier to track officers’ income against their standard of living.
Olukoyede also announced that the commission’s former Department of Internal Affairs has been renamed the Department of Ethics and Integrity, a change he said reflects the EFCC’s effort to hold itself to the same standards it demands of those it investigates.
On the commission’s broader impact, Olukoyede said EFCC enforcement activities helped drive federal and state tax recoveries of about ₦288.1 billion — ₦173.2 billion in federal taxes and ₦114.9 billion in state internally generated revenue. “This is fiscal value recovered through enforcement of existing obligations, not through the imposition of new taxes,” he said. He added that about ₦257.2 billion had also been recovered for federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Giving an overview of total recoveries between October 1, 2023, and June 30, 2026, Olukoyede said the EFCC recovered ₦1.23 trillion, $684.48 million, £373,905.78 and €9.34 million. Of the naira recoveries, ₦397.26 billion (33 per cent) went directly to the Federal Government, while the remaining ₦836.34 billion (67 per cent) was recovered on behalf of MDAs, state revenue services, companies, individuals and foreign victims.
On disbursement, he said ₦661.32 billion and $492.37 million had been released to beneficiaries within the period — ₦325.35 billion paid directly to individuals and corporate organisations, and ₦335.97 billion released to MDAs, the Nigerian Revenue Service, state revenue services and other beneficiaries.
Olukoyede said the reforms form part of the commission’s broader push to strengthen transparency, accountability and public trust in its anti-corruption mandate.
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