The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has dismissed 27 officers from its workforce over unwholesome practices.
Spokesman of the Commission, Dele Oyewale in a statement issued in Abuja said the dismissal which happened in 2024 was taken to enforce integrity and rid the anti-graft agency of fraudulent elements.
It will be recalled that the chairman of the EFCC Ola Olukoyede recently admitted that some investigators of the Commission are guilty of demanding bribes and vowed to deal with any officer caught in the act.
According to the statement, the officers were dismissed in 2024 for various offences bordering on fraudulent activities and misconduct.
Dele Oyewale in the statement stated that the officers’ dismissal, following the recommendation of the Staff Disciplinary Committee of the EFCC, was ratified by the Executive Chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede.
The statement quoted Olukoyede as saying that “Every modicum of allegation against any staff of the Commission would always be investigated, including a trending $400,000 claim of a yet-to-be-identified supposed staff of the EFCC against a Sectional Head. The core values of the Commission are sacrosanct and would always be held in optimal regard at all times,”
Meanwhile, the Commission has alerted the public to the sinister activities of impersonators and blackmailers using the name of its executive chairman to extort money from high-profile suspects being investigated by the EFCC.
Two members of an alleged syndicate, Ojobo Joshua and Aliyu Hashim were recently arraigned before Justice Jude Onwuebuzie of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Abuja for allegedly contacting a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mr. Mohammed Bello-Kaka and demanding $1 million from him for “Olukoyede to give him soft landing” on a non-existing investigation. Such characters are still on the loose seeking victims.
“Olukoyede remains a man of integrity that cannot be swayed by monetary influences. The public is enjoined to always report such disreputable elements to the Commission.
“ Additionally, the EFCC is aware of moves being hatched in some quarters to blackmail officers of the Commission through unwholesome means. Suspects being investigated for some economic and financial crimes who have failed to compromise their investigators would always clutch at any straw. Such blackmailers should not be accorded any form of attention,” Ojewale stated.
