“Ordinarily, I mean for burial, some gave me one million, 20 million and all of 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, wouldn’t it have been a good defence for me to say it was my mother’s burial? when they were looking for me to roast. For me, that is what you call integrity. When you go beyond a level of expectation,” the EFCC boss said.
He said, “My chairman then, we agreed that we should select a committee. So, we selected an assets forfeiture committee of about six directors, including myself as the chairman of the committee and a few other staff.
“We advertised for auctioneers. So, they applied. We were able to shortlist about 11 of them. My brother-in-law happens to be an international auctioneer. He applied. His application came to me. I saw it, and I shredded it. So, my PA, who knew him, called him and told him what I did, and for six months, he did not talk to me. So we did the auction.
“One of my elder brothers called me. ‘I heard you are doing an auction. I needed a truck for my business. I said, ‘Sir, go and read what we published.’ Conflict of interest. No staff of EFCC or immediate family members are allowed. He said no, they would use another name. I knew they could do that. I told him that I was not interested.
“After about eight months down the line, they set up a panel to investigate activities of the EFCC. My chairman and I were placed on suspension. They began to investigate what we did in the office. They investigated the particular auction I did in Port Harcourt. Now, assuming they found the name of my brother-in-law as one of the auctioneers. What could have been the result? Probably I may be in jail by now,” Olukoyede said.
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