Ola Olukoyede, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has nominated Michael Nzekwe as Chief of Staff.
In addition, he appointed Zonal Directors for each of the commission’s 14 Zonal Commands.
Nzekwe, a lawyer and former Commander of the anti-graft agency’s Ilorin Zonal Command, was hailed as a “topnotch investigator” in a statement issued on Saturday by the Commission’s Head of Publicity, Dele Oyewale.
He has worked in several areas of the Commission, including Legal and Prosecution, Operations (now Investigations), Internal Affairs (now Ethics and Integrity), Servicom, and Asset Forfeiture.
“A seasoned administrator, he has attended several trainings and courses home and abroad, including the Advance Defence Intelligence Officers Course organised by Defence Intel Agency, DIA. The appointment takes immediate effect and he has assumed duties,” Oyewale said.
Meanwhile, the statement said Olukoyede, in his restructuring and repositioning of the EFCC, equally upgraded all the zonal commands of the Commission to the status of Departments, with each of them headed by a Director.
To this effect, 14 new Directors have been appointed to head each of the zonal commands. Additionally, to bolster and fortify the security architecture of the Commission, the Security Unit of the EFCC has been upgraded to a Department with a seasoned officer appointed as Director, Security and Chief Security Officer.
A new department has also been created in the Executive Chairman’s office and it is headed by the former Makurdi Zonal Commander of the EFCC, Friday Ebelo, who also doubles as Director and Coordinator, Special Duties at the corporate headquarters of the Commission.
The former Department of Internal Affairs has been renamed Department of Ethics and Integrity and minor reshuffling effected in some Departments at the headquarters.
“Olukoyede says that the ongoing restructuring is meant for the repositioning and strengthening of the EFCC to deliver on its assigned mandate optimally.”