Tunde Bakare
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede has disclosed the readiness of the EFCC to collaborate with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, UNODC, and the Canadian Government to scale up activities of the Commission against terrorism financing and illegal mining in Nigeria.
Olukoyede made this known on Friday, April 24, 2026, when the Canadian Senior Project Manager, Counter-terrorism and Anti-Crimes Capacity Building Programmes Division, Wilma Endamne, alongside the Project Coordinator, Counter-terrorism Unit of the UNODC, Tom Parker, came on a courtesy visit to him at the EFCC headquarters, Jabi, Abuja.
Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Commander of the EFCC, CE Michael Nzekwe, Olukoyede appreciated the support the EFCC has been receiving from the UNODC and the Canadian Government, noting that the EFCC has had a robust relationship over the years with the two foreign institutions. “I appreciate strongly the support that has been coming from UNODC and from the Canadian Government. Thank you,” he said.
He disclosed that the EFCC was rennetless in the fight against terrorism financing and illegal mining and was delighted that the Commission has had a tremendous number of convictions in this regard.
“The EFCC has been doing a lot in the areas of terrorism financing and illegal mining. We have a good number of convictions regarding illegal mining across our zonal directorates. We have been on it and you have always provided capacity in several areas, so it will be encouraging for us to continue to build capacity in those two areas,” he said.
Olukoyede noted that criminal elements are operating with advanced technology, requiring the Commission to also up its own capacity in order to outpace them and get the desired outcomes. “At our level, a lot has been done in-house to see that there is training in those areas, especially as it relates to terrorism financing, illegal mining and other areas such as money laundering,” he said.
While emphasizing the need for enhanced capacity building, the EFCC boss stated that the EFCC was always open to opportunities for more capacity building.
“The Commission is open to collaboration. We are committed to see that the collaboration with UNODC gets better and stronger. Whatever it would take to dismantle every form and structure of terrorism financing, the Commission is into it,” he said.
Lending his voice to the position of the EFCC Chairman, Director of Investigation, Commander of the EFCC, CE Abdulkarim Chukkol, disclosed that the EFCC has in recent times heightened its efforts against illegal mining, leading to massive arrests and prosecution of the criminal elements involved.
“The Commission has scaled up its activities against illegal mining, leading to increased arrests and prosecutions. Not only that, we build capacity in that area. We are happy that organizations like the UNODC have opened their doors for us in that regard. We want everybody to be on board so that we can agree that we have a problem, and design a framework on how to overcome it,” he said.
Tom Parker, the project Coordinator, Counter-terrorism Unit of the UNODC, disclosed that the delegation was in the EFCC to seek collaborative ways against terrorism financing and illegal mining, adding that the UNODC is working with various stakeholders and have been able to create a technical working group.
“One of our major projects in the counter-terrorism space in the past year has been a project, funded by the Government of Canada. It focused on the connection between illicit mining, artisanal mining and terrorist financing. We are particularly focused on illicit financial flows, coming out of this particular economic activity. We are working with a whole range of people in that space, the Mining Marshals and the NFIU, and we have been able to create a technical working group to try and bring all the relevant parties together, including the revenue service and specifically anybody that has interest in this issue,” he said.
In her remark, Endamne, highlighted some areas for capacity building, which include equipment, software and policing.
“Through our programme, our federal police can extend some kind of capacity with the equipment needed,” she said.