Abuja — The nation's sleaze watchdog, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed in its 2008 annual report to the Senate that it recorded 74 criminal convictions and recovered assets worth over N15 billion from those investigated and prosecuted.

The Commission, in its 62-page report, which was obtained by THISDAY yesterday, said that it filed 123 cases in court out of which 30 involved Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). It did not give specific details of the convictions, assets recovered assets, the 123 cases and the 30 PEPs who are involved.

The report, signed by the Commission's Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, covered the period from June 5, 2008 to June 5, this year. But the annual report was submitted to the Senate on September 30, this year as constitutionally prescribed.

According to the report, "Out of the over 3,301 petitions received during the period, 123 were fully investigated and charged to court. 30 of the cases now in court involve PEPs and at various stages of prosecution.

"The cases against PEPs have common typologies-abuse of office through contract awards or expenditures which are not consistent with laid down rules and procedures, money laundering through third parties or cronies and use of bogey companies without proper registration at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) or with unknown Directors and shareholders."

The report further said, "During the period under review, three additional ex-governors were charged to court (and) for the first time also, the full trial of a high profile PEP was concluded and judgment is now being awaited at the high Court of Lagos State (referring to Chief Bode George's case in which judgment has now been given.)"

According to the report, "Activities of the Commission during the period under review led to the recovery of N14,369,533,859.7; US$5,267,855; 13,370 pound sterling; 975 Euros; CFA40,665,000 and c1,590 were also recovered.

"Several billions of naira were returned by suspects directly to States and Local Governments once it was apparent that investigations were closing in on the suspects. The Commission also returned several millions of naira to victims of 419 and other economic and financial crimes.

"Investigation and prosecution of PEP cases remain the most challenging (and) imputation of politics, obstruction and non-cooperation from suspects continue to characterize these type of cases."

The Commission said it received assistance from donor agencies which were continuous in the 2008, listing such agencies to include the World Bank, European Union, Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Government.

On the World Bank assistance, it said, "This is a credit for Economic Reforms and Governance project to the Federal Government of Nigeria (and) the Commission is one of the beneficiaries of the project with an allocation of about US$3.9 million for the development of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), development of media strategy, procurement of vehicles, office and computer equipment and capacity building ini9nvestiagtive techniques. The period of implementation is 2005-2013."

It stated that the European Union grant to the EFCC and the judiciary was aimed at strengthening the institution by building capacity and having infrastructure in all key areas of operation, disclosing that "this project has an allocation of about US$32 million with an end date of December 2009."

The Commission said that the NETLAW under the DFID assistance was worth N1 million while the grant for research into legislation on whistle blowing was worth N5 million only.

It stated that the UNDP annual grant to the Strategy and re-orientation Unit (SARU) of the Commission for crime prevention initiatives had US$450,000 allocated for it in 2008.

Meanwhile the Commission expended N2.8bn on administrative and personnel costs as at December 2008. The Commission spent N1.1 billion on Administrative costs while N1.7 was spent on personnel costs. Bank charges on these transactions were N1.3 million.

N206, 177,111 million out of this amount was spent on local transport and travels while N 134,643,013 million was spent for overseas travel. Uniform and dress code allowance gulped N130, 873, 600 in 2008.

The Commission disclosed that its seizures of funds from suspicious transactions rose from N3, 980,000,882 in 2007 to N9, 306,598,179 in 2008.

It said that N2.9 billion of the recoveries made was, among others, deposited in Access Bank and N2.3billion was deposited in Intercontinental Bank Plc.

The Commission added that it deposited N139, 603,390 million in a domiciliary account also in Access Bank while N2.5billion was lodged in at the Central Bank of Nigeria-Lagos and N309, 729,741 at the CBN branch in Abuja. The Commission said that it had N1.036 billion deposit with Afribank.

Waziri, in the preface to the report, said "The Commission has so far recovered N108billion from the five banks under bailout by the Central Bank of Nigeria."

She said in the report that the rule of law should not be espoused and opened up for unbridled abuse.

According to her, "We must not espouse the Rule of Law and open it up for unbridled abuse by the same people who ought not to take advantage of it.

"The application of the rule of Rule in a manner that gives the common man a reasonable impression that the Rule of Law is a respecter of certain categories of persons is certainly the Rule of Law gone wrong."