The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Wahab Egbewole, SAN, has applauded the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, for what he described as bold and impactful strides in Nigeria’s fight against corruption.
Egbewole gave the commendation in Abuja on Friday, April 17, 2026, during a courtesy visit to Olukoyede at the EFCC’s corporate headquarters, where he led a delegation from the university’s management team.
He stressed that tackling economic and financial crimes remains critical to building a better Nigeria, praising the EFCC under Olukoyede for not only securing massive recoveries but also ensuring that such funds are redirected into meaningful national development.
“You are doing a wonderful job in the EFCC. I have followed very keenly because I believe that if we are able to solve the challenge of economic and financial crimes in Nigeria, the country will be a lot better than we currently have it. One of the things that I’ve seen is that one of your cardinal programmes as the Executive Chairman is to ensure that we prevent crime. And of course raising over N500 billion from proceeds of crime means that EFCC is doing wonderfully well.
More of the difference now is that when we get these recoveries we see them being channeled to more positive and developmental things. You will continue to make better strides,” he said.
The VC also highlighted Olukoyede’s back-to-back election as chairman of the Network of Anti-corruption Institutions in West Africa as unprecedented, describing it as further proof of his leadership credentials.
Explaining the purpose of the visit, Egbewole said the university is seeking stronger collaboration with the EFCC to combat corruption and address ethical concerns in Nigeria’s electoral process.
“Why do we have to pay this courtesy visit? As a university, we have a Center for Peace and Strategic Studies and we believe that one of the challenges of our society is the fact that violence and corruption bedevil our electioneering process.
We believe that it is important for us to engage the stakeholders in a way that they partnership attention of the Nigerian people to those preventive measures that we need to take. We also believe that one of the major critical stakeholders in ensuring that we avoid corruption in our process is the EFCC,” he said.
He added that the institution is confident the EFCC can help convene key stakeholders to prevent a repeat of past electoral malpractice.
He further emphasized the role of universities in shaping societal values, noting that partnerships with anti-corruption agencies would strengthen institutional integrity.
“as a University, we believe that collaborating with anti-corruption institutions will assist us in managing our affairs. Universities are expected to be the epitome of the best of everything in any society. But the roles that the university system plays today speak volumes. We believe that partnership and synergy between EFCC and the academia will also go a long way in reducing the challenges of corruption in Nigeria.”
Responding, Olukoyede expressed appreciation for the visit and reiterated the EFCC’s commitment to supporting the education sector. He revealed that the Commission had previously engaged university leaders to deepen collaboration.
“We have other activities to also support the educational sector. From our recovery account, we supported NELFund. In fact it was our recovered funds that served as seed fund for it to take off. The same applies to Credit Corporation,” he said.
