The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, has called for closer collaboration among anti-corruption agencies in the country for greater successes in the fight against corruption.
He made the call in Abuja on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, when the management team of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, led by its Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Usman Bello, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the EFCC.
The EFCC boss,s in his remarks, ks noted that, “All of us are key players in the anti-corruption fight. Everybody will agree with us that one of the major problems that is behind poverty, hunger, malnutrition, lack of infrastructure, and generally lack of development in Nigeria is the issue of financial crimes and corruption. If we can make up our minds, work together as a team and ensure that we confront it frontally, we’ll probably take Nigeria out of this mess. We can complement each other. There’s no doubting the fact that we need to collaborate andsynergisee. We must not compete. We must collaborate. We must work with sincerity of purpose. That is what Mr President has encouraged us to do by giving us this privilege to serve our nation.”
While expressing delight at the signing of the MoU, the EFCC’s boss appreciated that the Commission and CCB had always enjoyed exchange of ideas, intelligence, technical collaboration and administrative support and called for the ooperationalisationof the MoU to make collaboration between the two agencies stronger.
While encouraging the Chairman of CCB on the job, Olukoyede reminded him of his power to freeze and confiscate assets and to carry out investigations and prosecution. He enjoined him to be courageous, stressing “you can’t be doing this kind of work and people will fall in love with you, unless you are not doing it well. So be ready to be called names and abused. What is important is that we make an impact.”
Earlier in his remarks, Bello had observed that the MoU marked a significant milestone for CCB in its fight against corruption, adding that it showed the level of partnership and cooperation between the CCB and EFCC.
The agreement, he noted, “fformalisesour resolve to strengthen integrity, transparency and accountability in public life. The CCB enforces the highest ethical standards in Nigeria through asset declaration, verification, compliance, and monitoring, while the EFCC leads with a determination against economic and financial crimes. Werecognisee that corruption cannot be defeated in silos. Definitely, you cannot do it alone. Through this MoU, we commit to secure intelligence and information sharing.”
Speaking further, he stated that the CCB has a database of assets and liabilities of public servants in Nigeria. “It is a very rich intelligence that the EFCC has been using,g and we will be able to share experience, also. That’s one of the key reasons why we have this MoU.”
He identified other areas of collaboration with the EFCC to include joint investigations and operational support, coordinated asset tracing and recovery, capacity building and joint training, technological collaboration, better case management and unified public education campaigns.
“As we sign this MoU, let us signal a new era of united, effective action against corruption in Nigeria,” he said.
