EFCC leadership changed, Ola Olukoyede as Chairman and Muhammad Hammajoda as Secretary of the Commission.
President Tinibu has appointed Mr Ola Olukoyede as the New Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC). This was made Public by the Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, he announced this in a statement on Thursday.
According to the Presidential spokesman, he said that, Olukoyede’s appointment is for a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending the Senate confirmation.
President Tinibu suspended for Chairman of the EFCC Abdulrasheed Bawa on June 14, 2023, 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 after the suspension directed the Director of Operations at the Commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol, be on acting capacity as EFCC chair while the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested Bawa into custody.
Therefore, with this new appointment, Olukoyede becomes the new Chairman of the anti craft Agency.
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,”The spokeswoman 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.”
Also, appointed by the President is Muhammad Hammajoda to serve as the Secretary of the EFCC for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.
“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.”
The President tasked the new leadership of the anti-graft commission to “justify the confidence given to them in this important national assignment to strengthen the war on corruption through a reformed institutional architecture in the anti-corruption sector which remains a central pillar of the President’s Renewed Hope agenda”.
