The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede has charged the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Ayodeji Gbeleyi to be service- oriented and discharge his duties to fulfill the expectations of Nigerians.
He gave the charge in Abuja on Tuesday, September 3, 2024 when a delegation of BPE led by Gbeleyi came on a courtesy visit to Olukoyede at the corporate headquarters of the Commission.
According to him, public office is a position of trust and every leader in Nigeria should always strive to justify the confidence reposed in them by the people.
“By the virtue of what we do and see every day, public office is a position of trust because you were appointed to serve the people. You therefore, owe the people a high level of integrity, accountability and transparency. I also want you to know that the whole country is looking up to you because the mandate given to you is extremely pivotal in stimulating the economy so it is extremely important for us to look at you with expectations”, he said.
He further pointed out that “some people started well but ended badly. In the EFCC, we have seen a situation where somebody left office about three decades ago and we brought him in to answer questions. We have also seen people who were ministers 25 to 30 years ago come back to us to answer questions. Some of them are currently facing prosecution. So, it is extremely important to let good conscience guide you in whatever you do”.
Olukoyede further advised Gbeleyi to review the activities of the Bureau before his assumption of office in order to identify the wrongs, correct them and properly move forward.
Gbeleyi who used the occasion to speak on the activities of the Bureau and its new trajectory, disclosed that the BPE was recalibrating its ways of doing things for optimal results, efficiency and transparency. “For us the future looks bright because we are revamping our processes and procedures to ensure that most of our transactions are corruption-proof and to ensure greater level of efficiency and due diligence from incubation of our transactions to structuring, negotiations and foreclosure, such that some of the legacy issues that we inherited will be proactively mitigated, so that we will be able to contribute our modest quota to the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, especially in the anti-corruption drive and in achieving the $1 trillion GDP economy.
“So, we are here to speak on that and to introduce ourselves and seek a way to further expand the frontiers of our collaboration with the Commission in terms of future transactions that the bureau will be embarking upon,” he said.
Olukoyede assured the BPE of EFCC’s readiness for enhanced collaboration, and further promised to give the Bureau the necessary support that it may require from the Commission in the course of doing its job. Additionally, the EFCC boss urged the Bureau to always be forthcoming with information that the Commission may require from it in the course of its investigations and prosecutions.
“On our part we are ready to collaborate with you, and if there is any area you want us to give you support, we will always be willing and ready to support you. Along the line, we will also be needing your support to give us information when it comes to investigation of some of our cases. What we are doing is in the interest of the nation”, he said.