that's definitely not right!!!!
if they need money, they should request funding from government. keeping part of the loot just paints you black.
that is corruption and EFCC should know better.

I am a l little confused. Who funds the EFCC? Isn't it a government agency? Was it not set up to do this sort of thing? I am wondering why it is okay for them to keep a percentage (if it is true). It is ethically wrong.

Definitely, another way to steal.
We do not keep record in Nigeria, we hate record, therefore, this should not be allowed.
EFCC is not a collection agency, it's a government institution (non profit organization) put in place to fight corruption.
If they need more money to get their job done correctly, let them put in a proposal for budget increase. Taking 10% of money recovered is a great method to steal and smile; an incredible home run.
It should never be allowed.

Deep Sight:

You are a crass illiterate. I don't have the energy to expatiate. Just go and read the EFCC Act, and understand what they have powers to do and what they do not have powers to do. Note that the EFCC is never authourized to act as a debt collection agency.

Your example about the DEA in the USA is flawed. Criminal proceeds such as Drug money cannot be returned to the criminals. However loans are legitimate funds that belong to the shareholders and depositors of banks, and should be returned to them. Skimming 10% off is as corrupt as it gets, especially when done by an agency that has no legal powers to act as such.

Sir, I do apologise for my parent's inability to fund my education beyond the kindergarten level, and I would certainly be most grateful for any donations you might be kind enough to allocate towards my enlightenment, so that I will at least know which way up to hold the EFCC  documentation when I do finally muster the courage to attempt reading it.

While I await this kind gesture, may I remind you that Nigeria's EFCC anti-corruption agency is empowered to investigate and prosecute ALL crimes which generate financial returns for outlaws, ranging from the embezzlement of state funds by venal officials, to drug running, extortion and advanced fee 419 fraud, Nigeria's trademark felony. 

Bank fraud is only a subset of the entire gambit of illegality that thrives in Nigeria, consuming the place alive, and so preserving the country's well-earned reputation as a squalid haven of industrial scale criminality.  The EFCC happens to be the agency empowered by the Nigerian government to investigate AND PROSECUTE treasury looters AS WELL AS bank looters, among sundry other sleaze-bags, and that legal process requires generous funding to effectively pursue.   Such requisite financial muscle is best extracted from the deep pockets of the felons being nailed, therefore whatever percentage of stolen money that is appropriated for that endeavor by the cops will by definition leave FAR more change in public coffers than the ZERO dollars that would have been left if the criminals evaded all prosecution initiatives and were left free to hide the swag as they see fit.

There is, without doubt, a direct correlation and functional equivalence between the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Nigeria's EFCC corruption pit bull, no matter how depressing that comparison may seem to you. May I suggest you sit down for a stiff drink or two, if you happen to suspect that the EFCC is about to drop the hammer on you, for that, regrettably, is about the only measure that will make the slightest difference when the men in red coats come knocking.

Jakumo:

Sir, I do apologise for my parent's inability to fund my education beyond the kindergarten level, and I would certainly be most grateful for any donations you might be kind enough to allocate towards my enlightenment, so that I will at least know which way up to hold the EFCC  documentation when I do finally muster the courage to attempt reading it.

While I await this kind gesture, may I remind you that Nigeria's EFCC anti-corruption agency is empowered to investigate and prosecute ALL crimes which generate financial returns for outlaws, ranging from the embezzlement of state funds by venal officials, to drug running, extortion and advanced fee 419 fraud, Nigeria's trademark felony. 

Bank fraud is only a subset of the entire gambit of illegality that thrives in Nigeria, consuming the place alive, and so preserving the country's well-earned reputation as a squalid haven of industrial scale criminality.  The EFCC happens to be the agency empowered by the Nigerian government to investigate AND PROSECUTE treasury looters AS WELL AS bank looters, among sundry other sleaze-bags, and that legal process requires generous funding to effectively pursue.   Such requisite financial muscle is best extracted from the deep pockets of the felons being nailed, therefore whatever percentage of stolen money that is appropriated for that endeavor by the cops will by definition leave FAR more change in public coffers than the ZERO dollars that would have been left if the criminals evaded all prosecution initiatives and were left free to hide the swag as they see fit.

There is, without doubt, a direct correlation and functional equivalence between the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Nigeria's EFCC corruption pit bull, no matter how depressing that comparison may seem to you. May I suggest you sit down for a stiff drink or two, if you happen to suspect that the EFCC is about to drop the hammer on you, for that, regrettably, is about the only measure that will make the slightest difference when the men in red coats come knocking.

Drug money belongs to the criminal prosecuted while bank money belongs to individual depositors and shareholders

enough kudi for retirement

agitator:

Drug money belongs to the criminal prosecuted while bank money belongs to individual depositors and shareholders

Given a choice between kissing off ALL the money stolen from them by kleptomaniac banking officials, or receiving ANY fraction of that money after the fraud busters have taken a cut, most victimized account holders would GRATEFULLY settle for something, as opposed to NOTHING, which would most assuredly be the case if the pen robbers simply went scot free after their plunder.

@Jakumo

I may have to subscribe to your writing school.

EFCC has denied the allegation. Today's Punch newspaper.

In my own opinion, when you get service you pay, if EFCC would render service free because it is a government outfit, why do we pay immigration for passport, pay CAC for business registration, Pay SEC commission for shares transfer, pay VAT, pay to register cases in court, buy postal stamps, pay stamp duties, when you require special police coverage you pay, etc etc. Anytime you want something beyond the ordinary you pay, shikena. EFCC rendered services to the banks and should get paid. Their assignment require additional resource expenditure because of laxity of view, Do you subscribe to tax payers money spent to correct recklessness of private individuals?

Jakumo:

Given a choice between kissing off ALL the money stolen from them by kleptomaniac banking officials, or receiving ANY fraction of that money after the fraud busters have taken a cut, most victimized account holders would GRATEFULLY settle for something, as opposed to NOTHING, which would most assuredly be the case if the pen robbers simply went scot free after their plunder.

Jakumo, however rationale you may present this issue, it still does not answer the question of its legality with respect to the act that set up the EFCC.

bibiking1:

Jakumo, however rationale you may present this issue, it still does not answer the question of its legality with respect to the act that set up the EFCC.

Government attorneys will no doubt be prepared to lock horns with those of the accused, with just, equitable and predictable outcomes, if there really exists some semblance of justice in Nigeria, and that will free up armchair critics like yours truly to quietly applaud from the sidelines.

EFCC preface of legal functions attached

Jakumo:

Sir, I do apologise for my parent's inability to fund my education beyond the kindergarten level, and I would certainly be most grateful for any donations you might be kind enough to allocate towards my enlightenment, so that I will at least know which way up to hold the EFCC  documentation when I do finally muster the courage to attempt reading it.

While I await this kind gesture, may I remind you that Nigeria's EFCC anti-corruption agency is empowered to investigate and prosecute ALL crimes which generate financial returns for outlaws, ranging from the embezzlement of state funds by venal officials, to drug running, extortion and advanced fee 419 fraud, Nigeria's trademark felony.  

Bank fraud is only a subset of the entire gambit of illegality that thrives in Nigeria, consuming the place alive, and so preserving the country's well-earned reputation as a squalid haven of industrial scale criminality.  The EFCC happens to be the agency empowered by the Nigerian government to investigate AND PROSECUTE treasury looters AS WELL AS bank looters, among sundry other sleaze-bags, and that legal process requires generous funding to effectively pursue.   Such requisite financial muscle is best extracted from the deep pockets of the felons being nailed, therefore whatever percentage of stolen money that is appropriated for that endeavor by the cops will by definition leave FAR more change in public coffers than the ZERO dollars that would have been left if the criminals evaded all prosecution initiatives and were left free to hide the swag as they see fit.

There is, without doubt, a direct correlation and functional equivalence between the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Nigeria's EFCC corruption pit bull, no matter how depressing that comparison may seem to you. May I suggest you sit down for a stiff drink or two, if you happen to suspect that the EFCC is about to drop the hammer on you, for that, regrettably, is about the only measure that will make the slightest difference when the men in red coats come knocking.

My God! This is literature at its best! Hats off to you, for a fabulous riposte to my scathing words.

Fabulous in style, but not yet in content, i'm afraid.

Permit  me to apologize for my abrasive words. If you will take a moment to look through my post history, you will find it alien to my culture. At the moment when i read your post, i felt assailed by the very culture of impunity which has rendered Nigeria what it is today. Thus my hasty and abusive reaction, for which i apologize unreservedly.

Nevertheless i could not disagree with you more.

I happen to be a legal practitoner. Let me make a few initial observations on the law in this regard.

First off: The law makes a clear distinction between civil matters and criminal matters. Debt, legally and historically, is emphatically a civil matter. Indeed there is a plethora of case-law in this regard: and it has oft been repeated by the superior courts in Nigeria that no law enforcement agency is authourised to act as a debt recovery agency.

This is cardinal because you might note that Nigeria is a particularly lawless realm where influential people (and not-so influential people) repeatedly use the instruments of state to settle personal scores.

Debt could only be criminalized where it becomes apparent that there is an element of decisive fraud inherent in the transaction: such as evidence which shows that the debtor took the loan perhaps with fraudulent credentials and/ or without any intention to repay whatsoever.

Given the fact that most of the loans complained about by the CBN were being serviced to some degree (albeit sporadically/ insufficiently) it is difficult to make a case that the majority were loans in which there was no intention ab-initio, to repay.

Now bad loans are a global phenomenon. Check out the credit crisis that assailed the western world within the last two years. I can scarecly recall anybody being hounded off to jail in the midst of that crisis: bank executives or loan defaulters. The matter was treated as what it was:  a civil economic relapse which needed strong regulatory intervention.

Thus the point cannot be over-emphasised; that the EFCC has absolutely no legal basis for transforming itself into a debt recovery agency. As i have explained, defaulting on a loan is not a crime; calculated theft of loaned monies is what is. You can scarely claim that someone like Aliko Dangote, whose name was among the loan defaulters list issued by the CBN, was pepertrating any fraud thereby? This is a multi-billion enterprise bussinessman, whose regular business (just like anywhere in the world) must necessarily be serviced by debt. Accordingly, his outstandings in terms of loans remain a civil affair, and the law provides civil judicial processes for pursuing the recovery of such sums, processes which if pursued, can be very drastic and unforgiving, leading even up to seizure of assets, etc.

But given our fire-brigade/ motor-park-tout approach to things in Nigeria, we choose to ignore such procedures, thereby retarding the entrenchment of institutions in this country. And this country is sorely missing credible institutions.

So get that straight: The EFCC had no right whatsoever to jump around like drunken-clown chasing debtors all over the place like a hired goon. That was frankly illegal. And comical.

Now if the Agency had no right to do this, how dare it retain a commission thereon?

Whose money is this? Again i return to your analogy concerning the DEA. I needn't expend energy debunking that again: Drug money is paid by syndicates or drug users to Drug Barons, traders or syndicates. Every person along the chain is involved in an illegality: the funds thereon are derived from a chain of illicit users and are accordingly monies that[b] should rightly be confiscated[/b] by the state.  My money in Zenith Bank on the other hand, is my hard earned sweat: if its been given out as a bad loan, i expect that the civil judicial process should be activated to recover it. Under no circumstances should the Police (EFCC) transform themselves into a Debt Collection Agency and (without consensual agreement) SEIZE a portion of my money. It's hooliganism and lawlessness at its best, if it actually happened.

Back to the law. Under the Constitution of the Federal Republic ALL publicly earned funds revert automatically to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and must be appropriated by the Parliament before disbursement and expenditure. ONLY government agencies specifically authourized to retain earned monies are permitted to do so. The EFCC must therefore indicate what authourity it has to retain earned public funds (remember that this is a manifestly illegal "earning" anyhow).

I am not sure that i need go further. I will only ask you one question: If we continue like this, what happens to our Civil Judicial Processes? What happens to our institutions?

_{Hats off again sha, to ya great writing skills.}

Only God knows who is who in this country,

Cant i apply to be a consultant to the EFCC on debt recovery so that i can make 10% of their 10%. EFCC is now playing God that collcets 10%.

I cry in Boko Haram language.

Remii:

Somebody tell me, had these banks got services of private debt collectors to retrieve their money from non performing debtors, are they (banks) going to pay for the services rendered or not. Please explain because  we may look at this EFCC service to the banks similar to auditors, private security outfits etc. If looked from that angle and the percentage is agreed upon before commencement of service it is legitimate.

Is EFCC private or public . . .

It is a public parastatal. Meanwhile, albeit the issue has been declared a rumor by the institution itself, i still relish more education from the two learned fellows on this thread.

[b]I really dont see what the problem is!!

All over the world, debt collection agencies charge fees for their service, even bloody fundraisers charge a percentage fee for funds raised. It is standard practice that once you collect money on behalf of another party, you charge a percentage for it!! Especially when it is not in the collecting party's normal line of duty or course of business!!

If any of the commercial banks had been given the same assignment, they would have found a way to charge at least 35% and bury it under some stupid financial jargon like COT and the like - and we bloody well wont be complaining!!

I dont think it is EFCC's fault that the amounts they are chasing runs into billions - its the defaulters' problem. If EFCC had collected only N1.5m and charged 150k for admin fees I'm sure we wont be making noise!!

Even the repo-man charges you a fee after coming to collect the car you bought on credit and missed payment on. Its the way the world works If you dont want to pay the repo-man, pay your bills when they're due!!

Maybe we should ask a "World-Class" company like Goldman Saachs to collect the debts for the banks, and let them charge in cold hard forex - then we'll really need to do the math!![/b]

^^^ Please see my post above: the EFCC acting as a debt collector is ILLEGAL.

Under the principles of equity, it is a settled rule that one cannot profit from an illegality.

^^^ the same way they deny knowledge of policemen collecting money at road blocks by ignoring it.

We are so desperate for justice to be done that we sometimes sanction injustice and illegality in achieving this goal. Two wrongs don't make a right.

This 10% payment is out and out corruption, no different from the collectors at the road blocks. We have to scrutinise the EFCC to make sure that they go about their business in an accountable and transparent manner.

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marissa:

[b]I really dont see what the problem is!!

All over the world, debt collection agencies charge fees for their service, even bloody fundraisers charge a percentage fee for funds raised. It is standard practice that once you collect money on behalf of another party, you charge a percentage for it!! Especially when it is not in the collecting party's normal line of duty or course of business!!

If any of the commercial banks had been given the same assignment, they would have found a way to charge at least 35% and bury it under some stupid financial jargon like COT and the like - and we bloody well wont be complaining!!

I dont think it is EFCC's fault that the amounts they are chasing runs into billions - its the defaulters' problem. If EFCC had collected only N1.5m and charged 150k for admin fees I'm sure we wont be making noise!!

Even the repo-man charges you a fee after coming to collect the car you bought on credit and missed payment on. Its the way the world works If you dont want to pay the repo-man, pay your bills when they're due!!

Maybe we should ask a "World-Class" company like Goldman Saachs to collect the debts for the banks, and let them charge in cold hard forex - then we'll really need to do the math!![/b]

here the repo man charges the defaulter, not the owner if i'm correct.

Jakumo:

Given a choice between kissing off ALL the money stolen from them by kleptomaniac banking officials, or receiving ANY fraction of that money after the fraud busters have taken a cut, most victimized account holders would GRATEFULLY settle for something, as opposed to NOTHING, which would most assuredly be the case if the pen robbers simply went scot free after their plunder.

Another aspect you should consider in you argument is that the banks did not invite the EFCC to recover funds, there was no negotiation on how much or what % will be acruable to the EFCC.

Like learned people have been saying we should not be accepting illegality always.

There's so much debt to be collected everywhere. So, rather than quarrel with each other on here, why don't you look at the opportunities. It's about time for debt collection agencies to spring up and reduce the rate of unemployment.

otukpo:

EFCC has denied this allegation, so there is nothing to argue about.

Nigerians will always come up with one rumour or the other.

There has been no such denial. In fact EFCC officials have in addition been reported to assist their friends to settle personal financial scores - sharing recovered business debts  , by locking the hapless victim up until they cough up. Is this law enforcement or extortion ?

Poster, I think you should have copied the full article from next instead of picking the section that suits you,

That been said, even NEXT is not conclusive in the report since they are basing their "facts" on their "sources".

So did anyone get to read this,

Spokesman of the Commission, Femi Babafemi who announced to reporters on Monday, November 2, in Abuja that it had so far recovered N171 billion from the debtors of the banks, vigorously denied that a portion of this had gone into the private pockets of EFCC officials.Mr Babafemiasked: "How can that be? There is absolutely nothing like that. The money is paid into the banks directly. EFCC has agents in those banks and they only co-ordinate the payment directly into the banks. Most of these transactions are not cash based. Whether formally or informally, it is not possible. Anyone who does that in this agency will go to jail. It is an allegation that we have heard and it is an allegation that we have investigated. There is no law allowing us to do that so how will the EFCC do that?" Mr. Babafemi stated.

And this?

Francis Barde, the of Head corporate affairs of Union Bank, however, claims that Union bank does not pay a commission to the EFCC or the Nigerian police. "No charge has been sent to Union Bank for payment by any of the law enforcement agencies.


Please lets be objective, before talking out of context

This is total madness.This is madness of the highest order.This is political wickedness,this is gross inhumanity to man.EFCC should know better.If this is true then i think EFCC also need a watch dog.

Deep Sight:

My God! This is literature at its best! Hats off to you, for a fabulous riposte to my scathing words.

,

_{Hats off again sha, to ya great writing skills.}

So you blinked a second walked slap into Jakumo! Oh yes, NL got a few wordsmiths outside of the religious section where you play mostly. Rumours have it the id is Soyinka's. Some say the fellow is not Nigerian, but is oriental, a samurai, hence the name. But yet others insist he is not human. They say he is Hermes, the eloquent envoy of the Greek gods, probably the same one known in closer climes as Eshu, who once deployed his eloquence to trick Oludumare into vacating the earth.

@OP; EFCC has debunked this allegation.

@OP; EFCC has debunked this allegation.

Naija- home of the toughest African gangsters. So what did you expect them to do say they skim from seized funds?

Nezan:

@OP; EFCC has debunked this allegation.

See my brother. You should know by now that whenever public servants (or any Nigerian for that matter) go as far as to publicly deny any allegation you should know by now that there is a lot of truth that they are trying to hide. They may not be collecting by themselves, but they surely hire collectors and share in the 10% commission due to the collector. Ask them to deny that ; even ask Ribadu your two-faced "hero " to deny. Where did he get the money that he's using to junket about ?No be dismissed civil servant ?
But it is all very legal sha ! God dey.