TheCable

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it secured its highest-ever number of convictions within one year in 2022.

Wilson Uwujaren, the agency’s spokesperson, in a statement on Wednesday, said 3,785 convictions were secured in 2022.

The latest record of the number of convictions by the agency surpassed the convictions secured in 2021.

In 2021, the anti-graft agency recorded 2,220 convictions — a figure which was at the time, said to be the highest number of convictions in the history of the commission.

‘LAGOS COMMAND RECORDED HIGHEST CONVICTIONS’

Giving the breakdown of the 2022 achievements, the commission said the latest figure shows 70.5 percent improvement on its previous year’s record.

The commission said it lost only 41 cases in 2022, which indicates that a 98.93 percent success rate was achieved.

The anti-graft agency said its Lagos office also secured the highest number of convictions in 2022.

“As it was in 2021, the Lagos Command of the agency recorded the most convictions — 765, closely followed by the Ibadan command with 573 convictions, and the Port Harcourt Zonal Command- 567, while the headquarters recorded 314 convictions,” the statement reads.

“The conviction secured by the commission in 2022 is the highest by the EFCC since inception, and sustains an upward trajectory which began shortly after the emergence of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The Buhari administration was elected in 2015 on a tripod of promises — anti-corruption, economic recovery and security.

“In 2015, EFCC recorded a total of 103 convictions. This shot to 195 convictions in 2016, the first full year in office of the Buhari administration.

“The figure improved to 312 in 2018, 1,280 in 2019, dropped slightly to 976 convictions in 2020, the year of COVID-19, then moved up to 2,220 in 2021.

“The percentile improvement of the EFCC convictions in the seven years of the Buhari administration from 103 to 3785, is over 3574.8%.”