The chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has threatened legal action against online news platform Peoples Gazette over its report suggesting his involvement in the alleged abduction and forced resignation of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited Bayo Ojulari.
In a statement released on Wednesday by Dele Oyewale, Head of Media and Publicity at the EFCC, Mr Olukoyede described the report published on Saturday, 2 August, as false and defamatory.
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He demanded a full retraction of the report and a public apology from Peoples Gazette within 48 hours. Failure to comply, the EFCC chair said, would lead to a lawsuit for defamation.
The disputed report alleged that Mr Olukoyede, in concert with the Director General of the State Security Service (SSS), Adeola Ajayi, coerced Mr Ojulari into signing a resignation letter during a secret meeting in Abuja. The story further claimed 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”.
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In a follow-up report, Peoples Gazette stated that the First Lady, Remi Tinubu, intervened to prevent the resignation from being accepted, while suggesting that the coercion was done at the behest of Ms Ayinde, who the publication referred to as “Mr Tinubu’s paramour.”
Mr Olukoyede, through his lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), condemned the reports as “uncharitable”, “sensational and poorly sourced” by the online news outlet. He added that the report was designed to portray him as a public official who had compromised his position by acting under the influence of a private individual.
Read EFCC’s full statement below:
EFCC PRESS RELEASE
False Publication: Olukoyede Demands Retraction, Public Apology from Peoples Gazette
Against the furore generated by an unsubstantiated report by an online portal, People’s Gazette alleging that the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ola Olukoyede “abducted the head of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd… and forcing him to resign at a secret rendezvous in Abuja”, the EFCC’s boss has demanded a retraction of the story and public apology within 48 hours.
People’s 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.
In the fairly 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 went on to state 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”.
Oluoyede described the reports as uncharitable and capable of casting him in the mould of someone that 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”.
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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 in order to afford you an opportunity 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”
Dele Oyewale
Head, Media & Publicity
6 August 2025
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