Rights group lauds Senate for confirming Olukoyede as EFCC Chairman

By Adeyemi Adeleye
Lagos, Oct. 19, 2023

A human rights group, the Centre for Human and Socio-economic Rights (CHSR) has commended the Senate for confirming Mr. Ola Olukoyede as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Senate also on Wednesday confirmed Muhammad Hammajoda as the secretary of the EFCC.

President Bola Tinubu nominated Olukoyede following the resignation of Abdulrasheed Bawa, the former chairman of the anti-graft agency.

The President of CHSR, Mr. Alex Omotehinse, in a statement in Lagos, lauded the Senate for turning eyes away from the grand scheme to politicise Olukoyede’s appointment.

Omotehinse said that the group’s position was clearly in defence of the federal character principle.

He, however, condemned the recent protest against the appointment of Olukoyede as EFCC Chairman.

“Mr. Olukoyede is a thorough-bred lawyer with over 22 years experience at the Bar, worked as a regulatory compliance consultant, who specialises in compliance management, corporate intelligence, and fraud management.

“A certified fraud examiner, who has led investigations, civil litigation of fraud and financial crimes in international development projects.

“He was a member of the Fraud Advisory panel in UK and also Harvard University trained in fraud investigations.

“Olukoyede specialises in anti-corruption research and analysis, corporate and business intelligence gathering, and processing. Also worked in the law enforcement agency for about 5-6 years.

“That is, he had garnered the cognate experience as stipulated in the EFCC establishment act as the act itself was not specific as to where the cognate experience should be,” Omotehinse said.