EFCC chairman Kayode Olukoyede says he was gifted N500 million cheques and 17 cows by ministers, permanent secretaries, director-generals for his mother’s funeral in 2019. 

“I lost my mother in the year 2019 (in Ekiti). 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,” said Mr Olukoyede at the 38th Anti-Corruption Situation Room in Abuja on Thursday. “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 added, “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.”

The anti-graft chief said that although his wife was happy about the gifts, his refusal to pay the cheques into his account paid off when he was investigated, adding that some of the cheques came from MDAs under EFCC investigations.

“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 N500 million,” Mr Olukoyede stated.

He added, “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.”

The EFCC boss stated 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, would it have been a good defence for me to say it was my mother’s burial when they were looking for me to roast?” Mr Olukoyede explained. “For me, that is what you call integrity. When you go beyond a level of expectation.”