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EFCC chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede, has revealed that he rejected offers totaling N500m from government officials during his mother’s funeral in 2019.
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Olukoyede stated that the offers, which included cheques and drafts, were sent to him by ministers, directors, and other high-ranking government officials.
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The EFCC chairman explained that he returned the cheques, citing the potential conflict of interest and the need to maintain his integrity in his role at the EFCC.
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede, has made a shocking revelation about how he rejected offers totaling N500m from government officials during his mother’s funeral in 2019.
Olukoyede, who spoke at the 38th Anti-Corruption Situation Room in Abuja, explained that the offers, which included cheques and drafts, were sent to him by ministers, directors, and other high-ranking government officials.
According to Olukoyede, he was serving as the Secretary of the EFCC at the time of his mother’s funeral.
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He recounted how he received the offers, saying, “I lost my mother in the year 2019 (in Ekiti State). We went for the funeral. I was the secretary of the EFCC then. People came. So I went to my place a day before the funeral service.”
Olukoyede continued, “By the time I got to my small compound, which I built several years ago before I joined the EFCC, I saw about 17 cows in my compound, including pregnant ones. When I got home, my gate man presented a box to me and inside it, I saw so many cheques and drafts from ministers, permanent secretaries, directors, DGs of agencies, etc.”
The EFCC chairman noted that he and his wife were shocked by the amount, which totaled close to N500m.
He said, “I did the burial in September 2019. By July 2020, I was under investigation. Now, assuming all those cheques were paid into my account as traditional gifts and some of the MDAs that we were investigating in the EFCC, some of their directors and their DGs and their ministers sent cheques to me.”
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Olukoyede explained that he returned the cheques, citing the potential conflict of interest and the need to maintain his integrity in his role at the EFCC.
He said, “Ordinarily, I mean for burial, some gave me one million, N20m and all of that. Even though that would not have influenced my decision if I was in a position to determine what would happen to their investigations, how would I have explained before a panel that they saw cheques paid into my account?”
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