A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has appealed to critics of the appointment of Mr Olanipekun Olukoyede as the new chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to sheathe their swords.
Okechukwu, a foundation member of the APC, stated that Olukoyede’s critics should calm down, asserting that the appointment of the former EFCC secretary is a game-changer for the anti-graft-war crusade, considering Olukoyede’s track record.
In a statement made available to journalists on Sunday in Abuja, Okechukwu, who is also the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, maintained that it is not unusual for controversy to erupt after the appointment to an important and strategic office like the chairman of the EFCC, with regard to whether the appointment conforms with extant laws.
Okechukwu, however, called for caution, saying, “One has carefully taken a cursory analysis of the raging debate and came to the inevitable conclusion that Ola Olukoyode’s traducers had forgotten the famous and ageless maxim of the foremost physicist of all time, Albert Einstein: ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’”
He said, “The truism is that Olukoyede’s appointment comes as a remedy because EFCC was formed to provide an alternative front for higher performance in waging the Herculean anti-graft war crusade.
Therefore, his appointment from the fraud angle of the noble legal profession is an appropriate alternative strategy for reform. Doing otherwise is akin to doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
On the legitimacy of his qualifications, the VON Director-General said that he is in agreement with the preponderant view of senior counsel that Olukoyede’s cognate experience is unassailable, having headed the administrative wing of the EFCC and has devoted the last two decades to the tricky fraud profession.
“As the intent of the law is that emphasis should be laid on cognate experience, the reforms contemplated by the Renewed Agenda of President Tinubu can only be achieved by an informed insider with the requisite legal tools, not a learner. That, to me, is the essential thrust of Olukoyede’s appointment,” he noted.
He admonished Olukoyede to ensure that EFCC operatives embark on investigations with fine-tooth combs to fish out billions of dollars looted from Nigeria’s commonwealth and stashed abroad in foreign banks.
“Having served as a member of the Technical Committee of the Presidential Advisory Council on Corruption as well as a member of the Technical Committee on the Repositioning of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Olukoyede should insist that his men use fine-tooth combs to fish out billions of dollars stashed abroad.
“These monies could help bail Nigerians out of their economic quagmire and debt burden. Common sense dictates that it cannot be only Gen. Abacha’s loot that is hidden in foreign banks.
I, therefore, appeal to Olukoyede’s traducers to sheathe their swords and assist him with ideas to make EFCC deliver on its lofty mandates,” Okechukwu added.
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