• By Kamil Opeyemi

Nigeria’s anti-graft body gets a new boss, ending the term of suspended chairman, AbdulRasheed Bawa who is currently under investigation

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of a lawyer, Ola Olukoyede as the new chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The appointment, which was made known on Thursday by Special Adviser to the President on Media, Ajuri Ngelale, put an end officially to the tenure of suspended chairman, AbdulRasheed Bawa.

The statement said the appointment was in accordance with the powers vested in the President.

“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,” Ngelale’s statement said on Thursday

Section 2 (3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, states that “the Chairman and members of the Commission, other than ex-officio members, shall be appointed by the President.”

He is on a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.

The statement also revealed that Tinubu approved the appointment of Mr. Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda to serve as the Secretary of the Commission also for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.

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“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”

By his appointment, Olukoyede becomes EFCC’s sixth chairman since the creation of the commission in 20003.

Previous chairmen of the EFCC are

• Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. AIG (rtd.) Pioneer Executive Chairman, 2003-2007.
• Mrs. Farida Waziri. AIG (rtd.) Executive Chairman, 2008-2011.
• Ibrahim Lamorde. DIG (rtd.) Executive Chairman, 2012-2015.
• Ibrahim Magu 2015 – 2021 (He was never confirmed by the senate)
• ABDULRASHEED BAWA. CFE, CAMS. Executive Chairman, 2021-2023.