Tinubu appoints Olanipekun Olukoyede as new EFCC chairman

President Bola Tinubu has appointed Olanipekun Olukoyede as the chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The announcement was made by Ajuri Ngelale, a presidential spokesman in a statement on Thursday.

Olukoyede’s appointment follows the resignation of the suspended Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa.

“By the powers vested in President Bola Tinubu as established in section 2 (3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, that “the Chairman and members of the Commission, other than ex-officio members, shall be appointed by the President,” President Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr. Ola Olukoyede to serve as the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation,” the spokesman wrote in the statement.

Olukoyede, a lawyer, served as secretary of the anti-graft agency for two years during the reign of Ibrahim Magu as acting chair of the commission. He, along with Magu and a number of other officials, was suspended from office by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020 and was never recalled.

The statement said the President also approved the appointment of Hassan Hammajoda to serve as the Secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.

Hammajoda is a public administrator with extensive experience in public finance management who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Maiduguri and a Masters in Business Administration from the same university.

He began his career as a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi. From there, he went into banking, including successful stints at the defunct Allied Bank and Standard Trust Bank.

Who is Olanipekun Olukoyede?

Olukoyede hails from Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, South-west Nigeria, was born October 14, 1969. Former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Mr Olukoyede as Secretary to EFCC in 2018.

Subsequently, the Nigerian Senate confirmed his appointment in November 2018, to replace Emmanuel Aremo, whose five-year tenure ended in July of 2018.

But, Olukoyede’s confirmation as EFCC scribe came with controversy, as a senator, Isa Misau accused the chairman of the senate committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Chukwuka Utazi, of sidelining some members of the senators in preparing the committee’s report which cleared Mr Olukoyede for the job.

He had worked as a lawyer at the law firm of former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo before he clinched the EFCC job.

Olukoyede is a seasoned lawyer with expertise in compliance management, corporate intelligence and fraud management. He is a certified fraud examiner who has led investigations and civil litigation of fraud and financial crimes in International development projects.

He specialises in anti-corruption research and analysis, corporate and business intelligence gathering, and processing.

He is a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel (UK), and also a member, of the Federal Government Technical Committee on the Repositioning of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.

Suspension of EFCC chair in June

President Tinubu suspended Abdulrasheed Bawa as EFCC chair in June, and in his place, appointed Abdulkarim Chukkol, then director of operations, in an acting capacity.

Bawa’s suspension, anchored on “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him” followed a conventional pattern of unceremonious removal of past EFCC bosses

For four months now, Bawa has been in detention at the State Security Service (SSS) after honouring the agency’s invitation for interrogation regarding the corruption allegation.