President Bola Tinubu again broke the jinx as he appointed Mr. Ola Olukoyede, being the first time a Southerner will be named as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The anti-graft agency has always been headed by persons of Northern extraction starting from its pioneer chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who now serves as the National Security Adviser to President Tinubu.
A statement on Thursday by presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngalale said Tinubu, in exercise of the powers vested in him 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.
“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.
“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. 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 stated.
Olukoyede’s appointment follows the resignation of the suspended Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Bawa has since been held by the Department of State Services (DSS) where he is said to be givinv account of his stewardship while at the helm of the commission.
Furthermore, the president also approved the appointment of Mr. Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda to serve as the Secretary of the EFCC for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.
The statement disclosed that Mr. Muhammad Hassan 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.
President Tinubu tasks the new leadership of the EFCC 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.