August 6, 2026 | 11:40AM
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says about 18 state governments are currently being investigated for alleged mismanagement of public funds.
EFCC Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed this on Thursday during an interview on Arise Television. He however refused to name the states.
Uwujaren was speaking on the commission’s decision to place a restriction on an Osun State Government account, which he said was not an isolated case.
“Like we said in the statement, there are about 18 other states that we have ongoing investigations,” he said.
Asked to name them, he declined, saying: “I don’t want to start mentioning those states by name now. Not to jeopardise the investigation.”
He cited Section 34 of the EFCC Act and Section 7(6) of the Money Laundering Act 2022 as the legal basis for placing temporary restrictions on any account.
On Osun, he said only one statutory account was affected and the government can still operate other accounts. The restriction, he added, is temporary and the EFCC has 72 hours to obtain a court order to sustain it.
Uwujaren also recalled a similar action in Edo State before Governor Monday Okpebholo assumed office, saying the commission preserved $12 billion by restricting suspicious transactions.
On why nothing was done in Ekiti, he said: “We didn’t have any reason to intervene. You don’t have access to the information we have.”
He stressed that the interventions were not targeted at any administration.
“The Osun case didn’t start today. It started in March and some officials have already been interviewed,” he added.
