President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed Mr. Ola Olukoyede as the new Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.
He has similarly appointed Mr. Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda to serve as the Secretary of the anti-graft agency for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.
Presidential Spokesman Ajuri Ngelale announced the appointments in a statement issued this Thursday afternoon, October 1, 2023. He said Olukoyede’s appointment followed the resignation of erstwhile EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa, who has been in detention since shortly after Tinubu assumed office as President on May 29 this year.
Introducing the new EFCC Chairman, Ngelale said: “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.”
On the new EFCC Secretary, the Presidential Spokesman said: “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,” Ngelale said in the statement.