The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has given fresh assurance to victims of the collapsed CBEX digital trading platform, promising that investors will get back their hard-earned monies.
According to the EFCC, long before the CBEX digital platform collapsed, the commission had been monitoring its operations and gathering intelligence about its activities. This was revealed during a live appearance on Channels TV’s Morning Brief on Wednesday by Dele Oyewale, the spokesperson for the anti-graft agency.
Oyewale explained that several Nigerians had been reaching out to the EFCC for updates regarding the fate of their funds invested in CBEX and to inquire about what steps the commission was taking. However, he stressed that the EFCC did not wait for public outcry before swinging into action.
“We were not waiting for Nigerians to call us before we started our work, of course, we have been working. We were not caught unawares by what actually happened. Our surveillance network is expansive, our intelligence-gathering is highly effective, and we had been tracking that digital trading platform for a while,” Oyewale stated.
He added that the EFCC had profiled numerous details concerning the platform’s operations and had been actively following its activities before the eventual collapse. Oyewale also recalled that on March 11, 2025, the executive chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, had already instructed the agency to raise public awareness about the suspicious activities of CBEX.
Reassuring the affected investors, Oyewale promised that though the recovery process might take time, the commission was fully committed to retrieving the lost funds. He made it clear that it would be highly irresponsible and unprofessional for the EFCC to declare that nothing could be done about the situation.
“No, it will be very irresponsible and unprofessional if the EFCC says that you have lost your money; there is nothing the commission can do about it. We are actively working with Interpol and our international development partners to ensure that those behind this fraudulent operation are apprehended and brought to justice,” he affirmed.
He continued, “Investors are going to get their money back, and we are already working on that. Everything I’m saying is that this kind of thing could have been averted if the public had taken earlier caution seriously. Be that as it may, it was not averted, but we will not fold our arms helplessly and watch this pass without action.”
Oyewale emphasized that the EFCC is a responsible and professional institution that takes the concerns of Nigerians seriously. He assured that the agency had broadened its efforts by engaging Interpol and other relevant international bodies to track down those responsible for the CBEX fraud and recover the diverted funds for the victims.
“We have spread out our wings by talking to Interpol and the necessary agencies across the world to be able to bring all the actors to book, and investors will have their money back,” Oyewale concluded.