President Bola Tinubu has appointed Ola Olukoyede as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
This appointment is coming shortly after former Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa.
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 subsequently directed the Director of Operations at the Commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol, to step in as acting EFCC chair while the Department of State Services (DSS) took Bawa into custody.
However, with Thursday’s appointment, Olukoyede becomes the new helmsman of the commission.
Presidential spokesman Ngelale said the decision of the President to appoint Olukoyede as new EFCC boss was derived from the powers vested in him as established in section 2 (3) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004.
“Mr. Ola Olukoyede is a lawyer with over twenty-two (22) years of experience as a regulatory compliance consultant and specialist in fraud management and corporate intelligence,” Ngelale said.
“He has extensive experience in the operations of the EFCC, having previously served as Chief of Staff to the Executive Chairman (2016-2018) and Secretary to the Commission (2018-2023). As such, he fulfills the statutory requirement for appointment as Chairman of the EFCC.” he added.
