UPDATED: Tinubu appoints unqualified person as EFCC Chairman

President Bola Tinubu has appointed Olanipekun Olukoyede as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in violation of the law establishing the anti-corruption agency.

The president also approved the appointment of Muhammad Hammajoda as the Secretary of the EFCC on a renewable term of five years.

Both appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.

The appointments, announced in a statement by presidential spokesperson on Thursday, confirms PREMIUM TIMES exclusive report days earlier about Mr Tinubu’s plan to name Mr Olukoyede as the next EFCC chief in disregard for the law.

Ajuri Ngelale, the presidential spokesperson who signed the statement, said Mr Olukoyede’s appointment followed the resignation of the immediate-past substantive chairman of the commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa.

Mr Bawa has been in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) facing investigations over undisclosed corruption allegations since his earlier suspension from office in June.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Olukoyede, although a former secretary of the EFCC and ex-chief of staff to the chairman of the commission, did not meet the requirements of section 2(3) of the EFCC Act, to be qualified for the appointment.

The law stipulates that a chairman of the commission “must be a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent; possess not less than 15 years experience.”

Mr Olukoyede had no experience in any security or law enforcement agency until his first appointment at the EFCC in 2016, when he was appointed to serve as the Chief of Staff to then acting chairperson of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu. He held the position from 2016 to 2018.

He was subsequently appointed as the secretary of the commission in 2018 and served in that capacity up till 2020, when he was suspended from office by then President Muhammadu Buhari. He was suspended alongside Mr Magu and some other officials of the commission. He and Mr Magu were never recalled.

Mr Tinubu also approved the appointment of Muhammad Hammajoda to serve as the EFCC secretary for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.

While Mr Magu was replaced with Mr Bawa in February 2021, Mr Olukoyede was replaced with George Ekpungu, as the secretary of the commission in June 2021.

But the presidency’s statement announcing the new EFCC appointments on Thursday stated that Mr Olukoyede served as the secretary of the commission up till 2023.

Read the presidency’s full statement below.

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.

Mr. Olukoyede’s appointment follows the resignation of the suspended Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa.

Furthermore, President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr. Muhammad 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.

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 Bola Tinubu tasks the new leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (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.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale