President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr. Ola Olukoyede as the new chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He has also named Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda as the secretary of the anti-graft body.
These were announced in a statement issued on Thursday by Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity).
The statement said the action was in conformity with the powers vested in the president 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.”
The statement added that the appointment of the chairman is for a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.
It informed that Olukoyede is a lawyer with over 22 years of experience as a regulatory compliance consultant and specialist in fraud management and corporate intelligence.
According to the statement, 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,” the statement added.
It said Olukoyede’s appointment follows the resignation of the suspended Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Hammajoda is to serve as the Secretary of the EFCC also for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.
The statement noted that 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.
The statement maintained that President Tinubu tasked the new leadership of the EFCC to justify the confidence given to them in the 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.”
Tinubu had in June this year suspended the erstwhile chairman of the commission, Bawa, to ensure investigations into “weighty allegations“ of abuse of office against him.
Bawa, 40, was appointed February 2021 by former president, Muhammadu Buhari following the removal of his predecessor, Ibrahim Magu, over allegations of corruption.
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