EFCC Recovered Judge’s Stolen ₦7.2 Million Within Hours, Olukoyede Reveals

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has revealed how suspected internet fraudsters popularly known as Yahoo Boys allegedly emptied a judge’s bank account of more than ₦7.2 million in the early hours of the morning, saying the commission recovered the entire sum before the end of the same day.

Olukoyede disclosed this on Friday, July 3, 2026, during the public presentation of two books authored by retired High Court judge Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye in Abuja.

According to him, the stolen money represented six years of savings the judge had set aside to sponsor the education of her child.

“She had just been scammed of the money she had been putting together for six years to send her child to school,” Olukoyede said.

He explained that the judge was awakened by multiple debit alerts before realising that fraudsters had withdrawn more than ₦7.2 million from her account through unauthorised transactions.

“She said it was alerts that woke her up.”

“She received debits at that time of the day.”

“Before she knew it, she had been scammed of about ₦7.2 million,” he said.

Olukoyede said the judge contacted him at about 1:00 a.m. to report the incident and seek the commission’s intervention.

He recounted telling the judge that the EFCC had previously been restrained by a court order from investigating financial crimes in the state where the incident occurred.

“My lord, I have an order, an injunction not to investigate financial crimes in that state,” he said.

According to Olukoyede, the judge immediately appealed for urgent action.

“No, no, no! This is an exception.”

” You must do something immediately!” he quoted the judge as saying.

Olukoyede said the commission promptly swung into action and successfully traced and recovered the stolen funds within hours.

“Before 6 p.m., we recovered the entire money for her,” he said.

He said the experience demonstrated how quickly anyone could become a victim of cybercrime and underscored the need for stronger support for law enforcement agencies in tackling financial crimes.

“I am very sure that if an application comes before her to stop the EFCC from carrying out its mandate, she will dismiss it because she has become a victim,” Olukoyede said.

He urged Nigerians to work collectively to combat internet fraud, stressing that the responsibility should not rest on the EFCC alone.

“Not until we, as Nigerians, come together and agree to face this challenge, law enforcement agencies playing their role, citizens doing their part, and the judiciary too doing its part, it is only then that we will be able to put this problem behind us,” he said.

“We can do it.”

“Nigeria can do it, and we will do it and succeed,” he added.

Olukoyede also called for reforms to Nigeria’s legal framework to address emerging challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence in criminal investigations.

He said the EFCC has begun deploying artificial intelligence tools in its operations but noted that the admissibility of AI-generated evidence remains a legal challenge.

“Now we have already started deploying the tools of AI in the investigation of crime.”

“But what I am cracking my brain about is how to generate evidence and make it admissible?” he said.

He appealed to lawmakers and legal scholars to develop legislation that would strengthen the use of artificial intelligence in criminal justice.

“I wish our legislators and professors of law will take time and come together to look at this area and come up with laws that will help us in the area of AI,” Olukoyede said.