President Bola Tinubu has urged the judiciary to close procedural loopholes that allow politically exposed persons and organised crime suspects to delay corruption trials, insisting that legal technicalities must not become a shield against accountability.
The President also called for a review of prosecution strategies and outdated legal precedents to strengthen Nigeria’s response to increasingly sophisticated financial crimes involving cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence.
Tinubu, represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, spoke on Tuesday in Abuja at the eighth annual capacity-building workshop for judges and justices organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the National Judicial Institute.
“Probe prosecution strategies, dismantle outdated precedents, and seal procedural gaps that politically exposed persons and organised crime actors exploit to delay or frustrate trial,” he said.
He warned that corruption could not be tackled effectively if the judiciary treated the fight against graft as the responsibility of the executive alone.
“We must no longer permit legal pyrotechnics and procedural pedantry to shelter criminality. The Bench is not merely a mechanical arbiter of rules, but an active guardian of moral order and social equity,” Tinubu said.
He added that courts must uphold the purpose of the law rather than allow technical manoeuvres to frustrate justice.
“Our courts must embody the spirit, and not just the arid letter, of the law,” he said.
Speaking on the workshop's theme, “Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Financial Crimes in a Digital Age”, Tinubu said the growing sophistication of digital financial crimes required judicial officers to update their knowledge and improve their handling of complex evidence.
He cited the EFCC's recovery of digital assets and funds linked to cryptocurrency-related fraud as evidence of the commission's enforcement efforts.
According to him, the commission secured the forfeiture of $22,417.91 worth of Bitcoin, 1,001,301.87 USDT in digital assets and $5.6m linked to the CBEX scheme in 2025.
Tinubu also disclosed that 192 foreign nationals arrested for cyberterrorism and cryptocurrency fraud had been prosecuted and deported.
He said such cases required courts to develop the capacity to assess digital evidence and adjudicate effectively on emerging forms of financial crime.
The President pledged the Federal Government's support for efforts to equip the judiciary to meet the demands of justice delivery in the digital era. He also acknowledged the reform initiatives of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
Kekere-Ekun, speaking earlier, said technological advances had transformed how digital evidence was obtained, preserved and presented, making disciplined case management increasingly important.
She said sustained judicial education and capacity development were helping to improve case management and justice delivery, adding that the partnership between the EFCC and NJI was designed to address emerging challenges in the administration of criminal justice.
The Chief Justice urged judicial officers to acquire the skills needed to handle technology-driven cases and new forms of evidence.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Emmanuel Udende, described the workshop as timely, particularly as financial crimes involving politically exposed persons became increasingly sophisticated.
Udende said such cases posed challenges for timely case management and the administration of justice. He assured that the National Assembly would support the anti-corruption campaign through proactive legislation.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, represented by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Rotimi Oyedepo, called for stronger collaboration among institutions responsible for investigating and prosecuting corruption cases.
He urged judges and lawyers to use the workshop to strengthen their capacity for thorough investigations and diligent prosecutions, stressing that no single arm of government could tackle corruption effectively in isolation.
The Administrator of the NJI, Babatunde Adejumo, described the partnership with the EFCC as an important part of efforts to strengthen the judiciary's response to financial crimes.
EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede said the workshop had become a key part of the two institutions' annual programmes amid the growing complexity of financial crimes.
He said the commission had secured convictions and recovered funds over the past three years, pledging that recovered assets would be managed transparently and judiciously.
Olukoyede, however, warned that technological innovation was advancing faster than existing legal instruments, highlighting the need for continuous legal reforms and closer cooperation among investigators, prosecutors and judicial officers.
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