EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede
By Miriam Humbe
The Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr Ola Olukoyede has called on all Nigerians to join hands together to tackle the menace of economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption.
Dele Oyewale, EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity disclosed this in a statement signed on Thursday.
Olukoyede was speaking in Abuja on Wednesday February 26, 2025 at the EFCC Academy, Karu, while declaring open the Anti-Corruption Collective Action Workshop themed “Strengthening Ethics and Behavioural Change against Corruption”.
Olukoyede, who spoke through the Acting Commandant, EFCC Academy, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE1 Joseph Ogwiji emphasized the significance of collective action as a preventive modality in tackling corruption stressing that “spirit of the Chairman is to have a preventive framework that will deter everyone from committing the crime and I am sure that is what pays off in all of the climes much more than the reactive or punitive measures adopted all over the world”.
The Workshop organizer ACEII Hauwa Ibrahim Garba stated that “this workshop marks the launch of the initial take -off of a project on Anti-Corruption Collective Action , explaining that the objective of the project is to impact knowledge by way of strengthening and promoting ethics and integrity through behavioural change against Corruption under the guidance of the IACA’s Anti-Corruption Collective Action Impact Centre through training, workshops, and mentoring of young officers of the EFCC for a period of five years.
“These young officers who are the prospective leaders of the Commission will be groomed in behavioral and attitudinal change with focus on the core values of the Commission, integrity, courage, professionalism & collaboration to resist any act of corruption.
Martin Zapata, Senior Officer, Academic Programmes, IACA accompanied by Shuhan Liu, Project Assistant, Academic Project, IACA were delegated by the Institute to engage in activities that will support the successful implementation of the project.
Zapata said: “We need to join hands to combat corruption… we believe that this will be an excellent platform for you to spark ideas to come up with tailored solutions for your own organizations.”
He further emphasized that during the workshop, issues such as behavioural changes, collective actions and education together with law enforcement will be discussed.
Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Dr Abdullahi Bello represented by the Acting Director, Intelligence, Investigation and monitoring, Farouk Dogondaji said: “Looking at the public perception against the anti- corruption agencies in Nigeria today, we believe we can change by factoring the kind of courage and professionalism you are going to be taught here and when you do your work, be able to say no to corruption”.
The Provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences, ICPC, Professor Olatunde Babatunde represented by Dr Richad Bello, Deputy Director, Planning, Research and Statistics said: “Collaboration is also one of the core values of the ICPC and looking at the theme of the workshop there is no better time to collaborate than now.”
Some of the topics being discussed at the three-day workshop include Anti-Corruption Collective Action, Corruption and Insecurity, Changing the Mindset of Youth towards Corrupt Practices, Skills and Strategies for Countering Corruption-inducing Social Norms, among others.
