Diverting Tithes, Offerings, Zakat to Private Businesses Criminal – EFCC
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has warned religious leaders against diverting tithes, offerings, zakat and other religious funds into private businesses.
The EFCC Chairman, Mr Ola Olukoyede gave the warning on Wednesday in Abuja, at the 2026 Second Council Meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) themed “Shared Sacred Flourishing in Nigeria”.
Olukoyede said such diversion was criminal and advised churches and mosques to create regulatory compliance mechanisms to protect funds entrusted to them.
He emphasised that religious leaders must lead by example in the anti-corruption fight because followers emulated their conduct.
According to him, the message should begin with us as leaders before we even go down to our followers. If as leaders we do the right thing, the followers will emulate us.
”When the followers know that there is no difference between the money that is meant to propagate the faith that you stand for and your own personal resources, you miss everything together.
”You are not supposed to mingle in. That’s nothing that says you can’t do any other vocation. You sell cars, you are a farmer and all of that.
”Don’t mix the money from the purse of your organisation with that of your own personal money. Don’t do that. When money is paid to your organisation, don’t divert it to your business.
”That’s criminal and some of our adherents and followers see some of these things we do.”
The EFCC chairman noted that religious institutions had extraordinary responsibility because while the EFCC could investigate, conduct, and prosecute fraud, faith communities could influence character and cultivate honesty to prevent crime.
He also criticised worship centres that celebrated unexplained wealth.
“A public servant says he has built a mosque that is worth more than his earnings in the next 500 years. And you go there to dedicate it. You are dedicating the proceeds of crime,” he said.
He warned faith community against providing moral shelter for corruption.
”No ethnic group should see investigation of its member as attack on the group, and no charitable donation should cleanse wealth obtained through suffering of others,” he also said.
Olukoyede emphasised that the most successful anti-corruption system reduced opportunity for corruption, hence EFCC established a Directorate of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control to monitor MDAs.
He noted that the commission had dismissed over 40 staff for corrupt practices.
He also said that when criminal wealth overwhelmed legitimate enterprise, citizens begin to question whether integrity still had value, noting that prosperity for a few without shared flourishing was not true flourishing.
The EFCC boss further said that the commission had been engaging religious leaders through its interfaith framework and had now designed an Inter-Faith Manual that sufficiently addressed topical issues to be preached.
“We are using this opportunity to inaugurate the manual, which we hope our religious leaders will surely find useful in teaching anti-corruption messages to their members,” he said.
He stressed that financial crime had no religion and corruption had no tribe, as both Christians and Muslims suffered when public money wass stolen. #Diverting Tithes, Offerings, Zakat to Private Businesses Criminal – EFCC# Tinubu Hails EFCC as Nigeria Wins $6bn Mambilla Arbitration in Paris
