The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that more than 40 staff members have been dismissed for corruption and financial malpractice in the last three years, adding that about five of the commission’s staff are currently being prosecuted for corrupt practices.

Olukoyede spoke on Monday in Abuja at a media interactive session to mark his three-year stewardship at the commission’s headquarters, at which he stated that, “in the past two and a half to three years of my service, I have asked them to dismiss over 40 staff on account of corruption and financial malpractice. 

“More than five of them are being prosecuted at the moment.”

The EFCC chairman added that the case files involving other suspected corrupt staff members are being prepared for prosecution.

“You can follow those cases in court; they are public knowledge. If that is what people do in other agencies and I arrest them, I investigate them, I prosecute them, why must I just dismiss you if you do it within our own system and I’m not prosecuting you?” he asked.

Olukoyede said the disciplinary measures were part of efforts to ensure EFCC personnel were held to the same standards of accountability the agency demanded from other Nigerians.

“You must be sure that your hands are clean. You can’t be fighting corruption when your hands are soiled with corrupt practices,” he said.