BY HAJARA MUHAMMAD
ABUJA- A Civil Society Group, Center for Democracy and Human Rights, CEDEHUR, weekend, allegedly accused President Bola Tinubu, for alleged gross violation of Extant Laws of the Economic and Financial Commission, EFCC, by appointing Mr Ola Olukoyede as Chairman of the Commission on Thursday last week.
The National Secretary, CEDEHUR, Adebayo Ogorry, pointed out that Tinubu allegedly failed to understand that the EFCC Extant laws remain sacrosanct and needed to be strictly adhered to before going ahead to appoint Olukoyede chairman for the Commission.
According Ogorry, Tinubu needs to comply with the EFCC Extant Laws and immediately cancel the appointment of Olukoyede as EFCC’s Chairman, if not he stands to set a wrong precedence for successive administrations, and warned that his action will slip into anarchy.
It will be recalled that on Thursday last week, President Bola Tinubu appointed Mr. Ola Olukoyede to serve as the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission pending Senate confirmation.
He said: “Who qualifies to be the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission?
“To answer this poser, recourse will be made to the highlighted extant provision of the EFCC
Establishment Act, 2004: (1) The Commission shall consist of the following members-(a)A chairman, who shall-(i)be the Chief Executive and Accounting officer of the Commission(ii) be a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent; and(iii) Possess not less than 15 years cognate experience
“The provision is very clear and unambiguous. The functions of the EFCC are not civil in nature. Hence it is a paramilitary organization. That is the rationale behind the inclusion of the police ranking system and its equivalent in other law enforcement agencies as one of the prerequisites for attaining the position of the Executive Chairman.
“Secondly, the person sought to be appointed must not only be a member of the law enforcement family, he must also have 15 years cognate experience. In other words, the person must have the knowledge, skills and abilities in the professional law enforcement activity.
