President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr. Ola Olukoyede as the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, announced this in a statement on Thursday. Ngelale explained that Olukoyede’s appointment is for a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.
The leadership of the country’s focal anti-graft agency has experienced shakeup in the last few months since the assumption of President on May 29, 2023.
On June 14, 2023, the President suspended Abdulrasheed Bawa indefinitely as the anti-graft agency boss. Bawa was suspended “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office”. The action followed “weighty” allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.
The President also approved the appointment of Muhammad Hammajoda as Secretary of the EFCC on a renewable term of five years.
Olukoyede takes over from Mr. Abdulkarim Chukkol who has served as the Acting Chairman of the EFCC. Before his appointment, he has previously served as Chief of Staff to the former Acting Executive Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu and Secretary to the Commission.
Olukayode is a seasoned lawyer with over twenty-two (22) years experience. He is a regulatory compliance consultant and specialist in fraud management and corporate intelligence with extensive experience in the operations of the EFCC.
Hammajoda is the current Director of Finance and Accounts of the EFCC before his appointment as Secretary of the Commission. He is also a public administrator with extensive experience in public finance management. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Maiduguri and a Master’s in Business Administration from the same university. He began his career as a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi. He further went into banking before becoming a public servant.
The two appointees parade impressive credentials sterling enough for their new roles as anti-corruption czars.
The President tasked the new leadership of the anti-graft commission to “justify the confidence given to them in this important national assignment as a newly invigorated war on corruption undertaken through a reformed institutional architecture in the anti-corruption sector remains a central pillar of the President’s Renewed Hope agenda”.
Ajuri Ngelale, the presidential spokesperson who signed the statement, said Mr Olukoyede’s appointment followed the resignation of the immediate-past substantive chairman of the commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa.
