President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday approved the appointment of a former Secretary of the Commission, Mr. Ola Olukoyede as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but his nomination has brought in its trail controversies.

He is to replace ,Mr. Abdurasheed Bawa, one hundred and twenty days after his suspension from office and subsequent detention. he is expected to be screened and confirmed by the Senate.

Some issues being raised against the new nominee range from not fulfillment of the requirements for such office. It is alleged that he has not been a serving or retired member of any security or law enforcement agency. And, that he doesn’t have 15 years cognate experience in law enforcement, and has not held any rank equivalent to assistant commissioner of police as enumerated in section 2 of the EFCC Act.

Mr. Olukayode is a private legal practitioner and has never worked or belonged to any security or law enforcement agency as a member. His experience has been to have served as Chief of Staff of the former EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu and later as Secretary of the Commission which cumulatively is not more than six years.

President Tinubu is equally being alleged to be flooding his government with people from his Yoruba ethnic group.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale who announced the appointment also announced the appointment of Mr. Muhammad Hassan Hammajoda as the Secretary of the EFCC .

Both appointments come with a renewable term of five years in the first instance, pending Senate confirmation.

Mr. Ngelale said Mr. Olukoyede is a lawyer with over 22 years of experience as a regulatory compliance consultant and specialist in fraud management and corporate intelligence.

“Mr. Ola Olukoyede 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). As such, he fulfills the statutory requirement for appointment as Chairman of the EFCC,” the presidential spokesman added.

According to him, Mr. Olukoyede’s appointment followed the resignation of the suspended Chairman of the EFCC,Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa.

He said Mr. Hammajoda, on the other hand, 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.

Mr. Hammajoda according to him, began his career as a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi before going into banking, including successful stints at the defunct Allied Bank and Standard Trust Bank.

Mr. Ngelale, however, quoted President Tinubu as tasking the new leadership of the EFCC to “justify the confidence given to them in this important national assignment as a newly invigorated war on corruption undertaken through a reformed institutional architecture in the anti-corruption sector remains a central pillar of the President’s Renewed Hope agenda.”