Alleged False Publication: EFCC Chairman Demands Retraction, Apology

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has demanded a retraction and public apology from the online portal, Peoples Gazette, alleging that the EFCC “abducted the head of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Bayo Ojulari and forced him to resign at a secret rendezvous in Abuja”.

The EFCC’s boss demanded a retraction of the story and a public apology within 48 hours.

Olukoyede described the reports as uncharitable and capable of casting him in the mould of someone who has “betrayed and subverted public trust by submitting the authority of his public office and trust as chairman of the EFCC to the dictates and directives of one Olatimbo Ayinde”.

In a letter addressed to the editor of Peoples Gazette Limited and signed by Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, SAN, Olukoyede stressed that “the publications and the imputations conveyed by them are so damning and cannot be ignored or treated with levity”.

He, therefore, demanded that the medium “acknowledge your wrongdoing, expressly admit that what you published and imputed against my client are false, apologise for it unreservedly and retract and pull down the stories from your newspaper website and social media handles”.

Additionally,  Olukoyede’s lawyer  warned that any failure of compliance with his instructions would result in the issuance of a “Writ in the tort of defamation to allow you to prove what your disparagement of my client’s character and reputation, especially in the way of the office he holds as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.”

EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, said in a statement that “Peoples Gazette had, on Saturday, August 2, 2025, carried a sensational and poorly-sourced story that Olukoyede and Adeola Ajayi, director general of the Department of State Security, DSS, pressured Bayo Ojulari,  GCEO of NNPCL, to sign a resignation letter.”

He further said, “In the fairy tale concocted by the medium,  insinuations were also made that  ‘Ojulari was repeatedly questioned about what he might know of Olatimbo Ayinde, a British-Nigerian oil businesswoman who has recently emerged as one of the most powerful forces steering the Tinubu Administration’.

“In a follow-up story, the online news portal stated that ‘officials said Mr. Ojulari was summoned to the Presidential Villa, where First Lady Remi Tinubu insisted his resignation wouldn’t be accepted.  The security chiefs who coerced Mr. Ojulari into the resignation letter had been acting on the order of Olatimbo Ayinde, Mr Tinubu’s paramour, whose growing influence in the administration has recently raised alarm.”