The Nigerian Senate has confirmed Ola Olukoyede as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Red Chamber also confirmed the appointment of Muhammad Hammajoda as the Secretary of the anti-graft agency.
The appointees were confirmed in the upper chamber on Wednesday, October 18, 2023.
The Senate also screened and confirmed the appointment of Halima Shehu as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
This comes a week after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had nominated Olukoyede as the chairman, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Shehu as the national coordinator, National Social Investment Programme Agency, and Muhammd Hammajoda as the new secretary of the nation’s anti-graft agency.
The President had on October 12, 2023, appointed Olukoyede and Hammajoda as chair and secretary to the commission respectively.
The leadership of the country’s focal anti-graft agency has experienced shakeup in the last few months since the assumption of President on May 29, 2023.
On June 14, 2023, the President suspended Abdulrasheed Bawa indefinitely as the anti-graft agency boss. Bawa was suspended “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office”. The action followed “weighty” allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.
The President subsequently directed the Director of Operations at the Commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol, to step in as acting EFCC chair while the Department of State Services (DSS) took Bawa into custody.
However, with last Thursday’s appointment and Wednesday’s confirmation by the Senate, Olukoyede becomes the new helmsman of the commission.
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Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, had explained that Olukoyede’s appointment is for a renewable term of four years in the first instance.
He also said the President appointed Hammajoda to serve as the Secretary of the EFCC for a renewable term of five years in the first instance.
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