Olanipekun Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), revealed that when his mother D!
He said at the 38th Anti-Corruption Situation Room (ACSR) meeting in Abuja on Thursday, February 27, 2025 that this was held at the Heda Resource Center.
The subject of the event is “Ethics, integrity, corruption risk assessment and anti-corruption at the national and subnational levels of Nigeria: Maintaining the fight against corruption”
“I lost my mother in 2019 (in Ekiti State). We went to the funeral. I was the secretary of the EFCC at that time. People came. The day before the funeral, I decided not to be on time. So I went to my residence the day before the funeral. When I arrived at the small compound that was built a few years ago, I saw about 17 cows, including pregnant cows,” he said.
“When I got home, my disciples showed me a box. A carton. Within this, I saw a lot of checks and drafts. From the minister, permanent secretary, director, DGS of the agency.
“So, I went in and showed it to my wife. She said, Praise God. I said, What is Praise God? When we put all the checks together, it was already close to N500m,”
He also said that he looked at the checks, put them together, wrote a letter to each check, and sent them back to their source.
He said that while it could be considered a traditional gift, he wondered if he could accept the gift from the EFCC secretary (at the time) was expedient.
“I had a funeral in September 2019. By July 2020, I was under investigation. Now, as people say, let’s say all of these checks are paid to my account in the form of traditional gifts. The EFCC boss said: “Some of the MDAs we investigated in the EFCC, some of their directors, their DGs and their ministers have sent me checks.” ”
“Usually, I mean burial, about 1 million, about 20 million, all of that. Even if I can really determine what will happen with their investigation, that won’t affect my decision, but that’s not a stopgap solution for me > How would I explain before the panel. They see the checks have been paid to my account. The first thing they want to do when they see the checks is to check all my accounts.
“So, let’s say they found the check that was paid in my account, wouldn’t it be great if I said it was my mother’s burial? When they actually asked me to bake me. Looking for every opportunity. For me, that’s what you call integrity. When you go above expectations.”
He also recalled refusing a separate bid for the auction process by his brother-in-law and his brother of descent, who was then responsible for managing the management of the confiscated assets.
“At that time my chairman, we agreed that we should choose a committee. So we chose about six directors, including my asset committee as chairman of the committee and some other employees,” he said.
“We advertised for auctioneers. So they applied. We were able to be shortlisted for 11 of them. My brother-in-law happened to be an international auctioneer. He applied. His application came to me. I saw it and then chopped it up. So my PA knew him, called him and told him what I did, and he didn’t talk to me for six months. So we did the auction.
“One of my brothers called me. “I heard you were in an auction. I needed to draw lots for my business. I said, “Sir, go read what we posted.” “Conflict of interest. EFCC employees or direct members of the family are not allowed. He said, no, they will use another name. Of course, they will help him. I know they can do it.
“About eight months after they went offline, they formed a team to investigate the activities of the EFCC. Then, my chairman and I were suspended. Now they started investigating what we were doing in the office. They investigated a specific auction I had in Port Harcourt. Now, let’s say they found my brother-in-law’s name as one of the auctioneers. What could be the result? Maybe I might be in jail until now.” Olukoyede added,
