President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Ola Olukoyede as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a renewable term of four years, pending Senate confirmation.
Tinubu also appointed Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda as the Secretary of the EFCC for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, also subject to Senate confirmation.
The appointments were announced on Thursday through a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale.
Ngelale noted that Olukoyede is a lawyer of over 22 years standing as a regulatory compliance consultant and specialist in fraud management and corporate intelligence.
“Mr. Ola Olukoyede 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 presidential spokesman added.
He stated that Olukoyede’s appointment followed the resignation of the suspended Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Hammajoda, on the other hand, 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.
Ngelale, however, quoted President Tinubu as tasking 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.”