EFCC: How 58 ex-governors allegedly looted N2.187trillion

 If the allegations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC were anything to go by, no fewer than 58 former Governors have looted, embezzled, laundered or misappropriated the sum of N2.187 trillion in 25 years.

The N2.2 trillion looted is equivalent to the Lagos State 2024 budget of N2.25 trillion and the entire South-East states’ 2024 budget of N2.29 trillion. It is several billion higher than the North-Central states’ 2024 budget of N1.89 trillion, and North-East’s N1.60 trillion.

The 58 former governors the EFCC is probing, probed, investigated and prosecuted are drawn from all parts of the country.
Since the return to civil rule on May 29, 1999, the 36 states of the country have had no fewer than 170 governors.

Further breakdown

Among 170 governors, 18 were acting governors or those whose elections were nullified by the courts; 36 are currently serving and 114 were elected governors who served for one or two terms.

Among the 134 former governors, no fewer than 58 have had fraud-related tangos with the EFCC of which only four were convicted.

Those convicted were Chief Lucky Igbinedion (Edo), late DSP Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa), Jolly Nyame (Taraba), and Joshua Dariye (Plateau).

No ex-gov among EFCC’s 6,981 convictions in 3 years

Between 2020 and 2022, the EFCC secured 6,981 convictions, according to data obtained from its website: www.efcc.gov.ng. In 2020, the commission secured 976 convictions; did 2,220 in 2021, and an unprecedented 3,785 in 2022. The data for 2023 is yet to be released.

No former governor is among the 6,981 persons convicted for fraud in the last three years.

A host of the cases are still in court, some have been dismissed for lack of diligent prosecution by the anti-graft agency and those affected acquitted. Some former governors visited the EFCC over the petitions against them and nothing was heard thereafter. Also, some former governors are dead and so are the cases against them.