EFCC Chairman: Okechukwu tells Olukoyede’s critics to Sheathe Swords
..says appointment, game changer for anti-graft war crusade
By Tom Okpe
As reactions continue to trail the recent appointment of Olanipekun Olukoyede as the new chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Dr Osita Okechukwu has called on the critics to sheath their swords.
Okechukwu, foundation member of the All Progressives Congress and Director General, Voice of Nigeria, (VoN) in an interview with selected journalists on Sunday, also described the appointment as “game changer for anti-graft-war crusade, going by Olukoyede’s antecedents.”
He maintained that it is not unusual for controversial issues to erupt after the appointment to an important and strategic office like the chairman of EFCC, without regards to whether the appointment conforms with extant laws.
“One has carefully taken a cursory analysis of the raging debate and came to the inevitable conclusion that Ola Olukoyede’s transducers had forgotten the famous and ageless maxim of the foremost physician of all time, Albert Einstein who said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Okechukwu opined.
He said: “The truism is that, Olukoyede’s appointment is remedy as EFCC was formed to provide alternative for higher performance in waging the Herculean anti-graft war crusade.
“Therefore, his appointment from fraud angle of the noble legal profession is an appropriate alternative for reforms as, doing otherwise is akin to doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
On the legalism of his qualification, Okechukwu said he is in league, with the preponderance view of senior counsels that Olukoyede’s cognate experience is unassailable, having led the administration of the EFCC and having devoted the last two decades in the fraud tricky profession.
“As the intention of the law is that emphasis should be laid on cognate experience. The reforms contemplated by ‘Renewed Agenda’ of President Tinubu can only be achieved under an informed insider with requisite legal tools not a learner.
“That, to me, is the essential thrust of Olukoyede’s appointment.
“I expect better results from Olukoyede and urge him to always diligently finish investigations to avoid media trial,” he stated.
READ ALSO: FCTA to disconnect 30,000 houses over unpaid water bill
The VoN DG, further admonished that the helmsman of the Commission should forthwith, embark on investigations with fine combs to fish out billions of dollars looted from Nigeria’s commonwealth, stashed abroad.
“Having served as member of the Technical Committee of the Presidential Advisory Council on Corruption, as well as member of the Technical Committee on the Repositioning of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, (NFIU); he should, with fine combs fish out billions of Dollars stashed abroad, and bail Nigerians out of economic quagmire and debt burden; for, common sense dictates that it cannot be only Gen Abacha’s loot that must be recovered.”
