Photo caption: Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede
The Economic Financial Crimes Commission has denied a claim that its chairman, Ola Olukoyede, met with an incumbent governor and his predecessor 48 hours before they defected to the All Progressives Congress.
The response followed claims made by Paul Ibe, spokesperson to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, during a recent interview on a national television station.
Ibe had claimed that both the EFCC chairman and the Solicitor General met with a former and a serving governor from the South-South region 48 hours before they decamped to the APC.
Ibe also claimed that the meeting took place at a government lodge in the south-south state.
Ibe, however, did not mention the names of the former and incumbent governors, but he said they are from a south-south state.
Reacting to the allegation in a statement on Friday, the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale,
said Olukoyede is “apolitical” and that the allegation is based on conjectures.
Oyewale said the EFCC chairman had previously stressed the agency’s firm stance against political bias.
The statement reads, “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is outraged by the unfounded claims of Mr. Paul Ibe, spokesperson to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, alleging that Ola Olukoyede, Executive Chairman, held a secret meeting with an unnamed politician.
“Ibe, who was a guest on Seun Okinbaloye’s Politics Today on Channels Television on Thursday, May 22, 2025, bared his mind on sundry theories, conjectures and assumptions relating to opposition politics and defections.
“However, his allegations of the Executive Chairman EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede and Solicitor General of the Federation’s alleged meeting with an unnamed governor forty -eight hours before his defection to the ruling All People’s Congress, APC, are patently fabricated and in bad taste.
“Olukoyede has stressed at several fora that he is apolitical and the EFCC totally wired against partisan tendencies.”
Oyewale, therefore, asked the public to disregard the alleged meeting with the unnamed governor as it only exists in the Ibe’s imagination.
PUNCH Online reports that the governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori, and his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, left the Peoples Democratic Party for the APC in April.
The governor of Akwa Ibom has expressed his intention to join the APC from the PDP.
