Tinubu reportedly considering Magu’s ex-chief of staff as new EFCC chairman

Barring any last-minute change of plan, President Bola Tinubu is set to appoint Olanipekun Olukoyede as the substantive chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a move that is bound to set off controversy over the candidate’s qualification for the job, Premium Times reports.

Mr Olukoyede, a lawyer, had served as secretary of the anti-graft agency for two years during the reign of Ibrahim Magu as the acting chair of the commission. He, along with Mr Magu, was suspended from office by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020 and was never recalled.

Before his secretary role, Mr Olukoyede had served as Mr Magu’s chief of staff.

“President Tinubu has chosen Olanipekun Olukoyede for appointment as substantive chairman of the EFCC,” a top presidency source familiar with the development but not permitted to discuss it ahead of the official announcement, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Also confirming the development, another source hinted that Mr Olukoyede’s appointment, which requires Senate confirmation, would be made public “very soon”.

President Tinubu, in June this year, suspended Abdulrasheed Bawa as EFCC chair, and in his place, appointed Abdulkarim Chukkol, then director of operations, in an acting capacity.

Mr Bawa’s suspension, anchored on “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him” followed a conventional pattern of unceremonious removal of past EFCC bosses

This newspaper had chronicled how leadership succession at the two-decade-old EFCC had been steeped in controversies concerning allegations of fraud.

For four months now, Mr Bawa has been in detention at the State Security Service (SSS) after he honoured the agency’s invitation for interrogation regarding the corruption allegation.

There are speculations that Mr Bawa has agreed to officially resign from office.

Who is Olanipekun Olukoyede?

Mr Olukoyede, who hails from Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, South-west Nigeria, was born on 14 October 1969. He will therefore clock 54 on 14 October.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Mr Olukoyede as Secretary to EFCC in 2018.

Subsequently, the Nigerian Senate confirmed his appointment in November 2018, to replace Emmanuel Aremo, whose five-year tenure ended in July of 2018.

But, Mr Olukoyede’s confirmation as EFCC scribe came with controversy, as a senator, Isa Misau accused the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Chukwuka Utazi, of sidelining some members of the senators in preparing the committee’s report which cleared Mr Olukoyede for the job.

He had worked as a lawyer at the law firm of former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo before he clinched the EFCC job.

Mr Olukoyede is a seasoned lawyer with expertise in compliance management, corporate intelligence and fraud management.

He is a certified fraud examiner who has led investigations and civil litigation of fraud and financial crimes in International development projects.

He equally specialises in anti-corruption research and analysis, corporate and business intelligence gathering and processing.

He is a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel (UK), and also a member, of the Federal Government Technical Committee on the Repositioning of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.