| By Emeka Amaefula OLUKOYEDE OLAONIPEKUN’S EFCC CHAIRMANSHIP APPOINTMENT IN VIOLATION OF THE ACT OF PARLIAMENT The Economic and Financial Crime Commission-EFCC Act established in 2000 and reviewed in 2004 has stipulated conditions and qualifications as guidelines for the appointment of officials of the ombudsman agency. Which is as follows in “Section 2(a)(ii) of the EFCC Act 2004 that clearly stated that the Commission’s Chairman must be a Serving or Retired member of any Government security or Law Enforcement Agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or its equivalent and (iii) possess not less than 15- years cognate experience ” Thus, the announcement of the appointment of Ekiti state born lawyer Olukoyede Olanipokun as the Executive Chairman of the agency has raised a lot of dust in the media space in Nigeria. What many of his critics are saying revolves around his qualifications and experience as stipulated by the EFCC Act as Amended in 2004. One of NIGERIA’S foremost well respected statesmen Professor Bolaji O. Akinyemi stated in a publication that” there are controversies on qualifications being stirred up, the strongest is the Clause requiring that the person to be appointed as EFCC Chairman must have had at least 15 years working experience with any security agency of Government.If EFCC is accepted as his first point of security exposure, 2016 to 2023 is just 7years Less than half the years stipulated by law. If Senate is worth its salt, this is enough to provide another stalemate refusal of confirmation that saw (Ibrahim) Magu rejected by the Senate twice, yet served as Acting Chairman for a period of 5 years.”On 12th of October,2023 Barrister Olukoyede Olanipokun a serving Pastor of the Redeemed Christian church of God, City of Refuge, Lagos was nominated as a substantive Chairman of EFCC. The insinuations making the rounds is that he got to the position surreptitiously using the wife of the President Senator Remi Tinubu who is a serving Pastor of Redeemed Christian Church of God and that it was as a result of the political gerrymandering orchestrated by phone calls from the General Overseer Enoch Adeboye that actually facilitated his appointed to such plum job. The Ikere-Ekiti born lawyer was born on 14th of October, 1969 as he earned a Law Degree from Lagos state University and University of Lagos. He also trained at Institute of Arbitration France and Kennedy School of Executive Education and he had a stint at University of Harvard all in United States of America. Thereafter he had worked as member of Fraud Advisory Panel, in United Kingdom. He was a Regulatory Compliance Consultant and a Specialist in Fraud Management and Corporate Intelligence. From the above resume of the EFCC Chairman designate it is obvious that he has not been trained as a Security personnel with 15 years cognate experience or reached the position of Assistant Commissioner of Police or its equivalent in other sister security agencies. Being illegally appointed to such an ombudsman agency, will rob off the integrity and legitimacy of his office should the Senate overlook the grey areas of his lack of requisite qualifications for such a covered office. Again, his continued stay on top of such high profile office will lead to lack of public trust in any action he takes other than playing the role of political witch-hunting of opponents of his pay Masters. ———Emeka Amaefula —–+234(0)8111813069 |
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