How I Rejected N500m Gifts During My Mother’s Funeral — EFCC Boss

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olanipekun Olukoyede, revealed that he refused gift offers totaling nearly N500 million from various individuals during his mother’s burial in 2019.

Speaking at the 38th Anti-Corruption Situation Room in Abuja, Olukoyede shared his experience while addressing the theme: Ethics, Integrity, Corruption Risk Assessments, and Anti-Corruption at National and Sub-National Levels: Sustaining the Fight Against Corruption in Nigeria. The event was organized by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda Resource Centre, alongside the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission, ICPC, and EFCC, with support from the MacArthur Foundation.

At the time, Olukoyede was the Secretary of the EFCC. He recalled returning to his family home in Ekiti State for the funeral and discovering numerous cheques and drafts sent by ministers, permanent secretaries, directors, and other high-ranking officials.

“I lost my mother in the year 2019 (in Ekiti State). We went to the funeral. I was the secretary of the EFCC then. People came. So I went to my place a day before the funeral service. 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,” he said.

“When I got home, my gate man presented a box (carton) to me, and inside it, I saw so many cheques and drafts from ministers, permanent secretaries, directors, DGs of agencies, etc. And so, I went in and showed it to my wife. She said, Praise God. I said, Praise God for what? By the time we put all the cheques together, it counted close to N500m.”

Olukoyede stressed that depositing those cheques could have seriously compromised his integrity, especially since some senders were under EFCC investigation.

“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, 20 million, 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?

“So, assuming they found those cheques paid into my account, wouldn’t it have been a good defence for me to say it was my mother’s burial? When they were looking for me to roast. For me, that is what you call integrity. When you go beyond a level of expectation,” he added.

Olukoyede further illustrated his commitment to ethical leadership by recounting how he rejected bids from close relatives for EFCC auction contracts.

He shared that while overseeing an assets forfeiture auction, he personally shredded his brother-in-law’s application despite his qualifications as an international auctioneer.

“My chairman then, we agreed that we should select a committee. So, we selected an assets forfeiture committee of about six directors, including myself as the chairman of the committee and a few other staff.

“We advertised for auctioneers. So, they applied. We were able to shortlist about 11 of them. My brother-in-law happens to be an international auctioneer. He applied. His application came to me. I saw it, and I shredded it. So, my PA, who knew him, called him and told him what I did, and for six months, he did not talk to me. So we did the auction.”

He also turned down a request from his brother, who hoped to buy a truck through the auction, emphasizing the importance of conflict-of-interest policies.

“After about eight months down the line, they set up a panel to investigate activities of the EFCC. My chairman and I were placed on suspension. They began to investigate what we did in the office. They investigated the particular auction I did in Port Harcourt. Now, assuming they found the name of my brother-in-law as one of the auctioneers. What could have been the result? Probably I may be in jail by now,” Olukoyede said.