President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr. Ola Olukoyede as the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a renewable term of four years in the first instance, pending confirmation by the Senate.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale, said that Olukoyede’s appointment followed the resignation of the suspended Executive Chairman of the Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Similarly, the President has approved the appointment of Mr. Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda as the Secretary of the Commission for a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending his confirmation by the Senate.
The presidential spokesman said the two appointments were based on the powers vested in the President as established in section 2 (3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, which states that; “the Chairman and members of the Commission, other than ex-officio members, shall be appointed by the President.”
The new Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede is a lawyer with over 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).
The Presidency stated that as such, he fulfilled the statutory requirement for appointment as Chairman of the EFCC.
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 Tinubu tasked the new leadership of the EFCC to justify the confidence reposed in them on the important national assignment as a newly invigorated war on corruption undertaken through a reformed institutional architecture in the anti-corruption sector which remains a central pillar of the President’s Renewed Hope agenda.
