Olanipekun Olukoyede, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), revealed that he turned down offers amounting to N500 million in gifts during his mother’s funeral in 2019, to avoid any potential conflict of interest.
He made this disclosure at the 38th Anti-Corruption Situation Room in Abuja.
At the time of his mother’s burial, Olukoyede was serving as the EFCC Secretary.
He recounted the situation, stating, “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.”
Upon arriving at his family home in Ekiti, he found 17 cows in his compound and was presented with a box containing cheques and drafts from high-ranking government officials.
“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.”
After reviewing the cheques, Olukoyede said he and his wife calculated that the total amount came to nearly N500 million.
“By the time we put all the cheques together, it counted close to N500m.”
He explained why he decided to return the gifts, stating, “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.
“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?”
