President Bola Tinubu has appointed a senior prosecutor for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Rotimi Oyedepo and six people as new assistants.
Tinubu sent the new appointees to the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja, where they will work under the guidance of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Newslodge saw a list of those appointed on Sunday.
The new appointees include: Kamarudeen Ogundele, special assistant to the President on communications and publicity; Hussein Oloyede, special assistant on refereeing, drafting and regulations; Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), Special Assistant on Financial Crimes and Compliance to the prosecution.
The rest are: Monsurat Gafar, special assistant for coordination and relations with intergovernmental agencies; Marcus-Obiene Fernández, special assistant on justice sector reforms and ICT/digital and innovative technology; Ahmed Wada, special assistant on special tasks; and Tolu Obamuroh, technical advisor on oil and gas, arbitration and international disputes.
Me Ogundele is a well-known journalist and currently serves as Group News Editor at the Abuja-based Daily Trust newspaper. Before joining Daily Trust in 2021, Ogundele worked in various roles at The Nation, The Punch, Business Day and Leadership Newspapers, in a career spanning more than a decade.
Ogundele, an indigene of Abeokuta in Ogun State, attended the Federal Polytechnic, Bida and the International Institute of Journalism, Abuja. He also attended Yewa Secondary School and Abesan Secondary School, both in Lagos.
The new appointee also owns Kammy Multi-Biz Global Company, a general contracting and marketing company based in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
On June 4, 2015, while working for The Punch newspaper, hoodlums suspected of being loyal to the then Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State attacked him for photographing women praying for peace in the state. They tore his clothes to shreds and confiscated his work tools, after which they beat him until he was stupefied. He narrowly escaped death after police officers on duty in the area rushed to the scene to rescue him. The police officers who rescued him were also assaulted by the thugs while they were taking Mr. Ogundele away.
Mr. Oloyede obtained an LLB degree from Bayero University, Kano. He attended the Nigerian Law School, Abuja campus, and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar more than a decade ago. He subsequently obtained his LLM degree in International Business and Commercial Law from the University of Manchester in 2012.
While undertaking postgraduate studies in the UK between 2011 and 2012, he served as the LLM student representative on the Board of the University of Manchester.
Since his call to the Nigerian Bar, he has accumulated experience in legal practice in private companies and public institutions. He began his career in the law firm of learned lawyer Yusuf O. Ali (SAN) and at some point in his legal practice he was driven to contribute to legal education, which prompted him to join the services of the University of Abuja as a teacher. II.
While teaching at the university, he taught courses such as contract law and law in practice before joining the services of the National Insurance Commission in February 2015, where he rose to become Senior Manager of the Commission’s Legal Unit, a position which he occupied. she occupies to date.
He was appointed by the Commissioner of Insurance as Secretary of NAICOM’s Takaful Advisory Council shortly after joining the Commission and serves in that capacity until his current appointment.
Oloyede attended various training programs across the country and internationally. He is also a member of many professional societies including, but not limited to, the Nigerian Bar Association, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, both in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, the Association of Professional Negotiators and Mediators and the Junior Chamber International.
He is the author and co-author of several articles in prestigious local and international media and his quest for knowledge has drawn him back to the academic world as he is currently pursuing a PhD program at the University of Abuja.
Until her appointment, Mrs Gafar was the Principal Private Secretary to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State. Before that, she was undersecretary to a junior UK minister.
His profile on the Kwara State government website said that before working for Governor AbdulRazaq, he was a business support and human resources manager between March 2018 and December 2018 in the office of the director general of the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom. Kingdom, where he was in charge of hiring and staff welfare, among other functions.
Ms Gafar also had some work experience in Nigeria, according to her profile. She was a corporate services manager at the Taleveras Group between 2008 and 2012. She also served as executive assistant to the CEO at Bagno Limited in Lagos between 2007 and 2008.
She was also a legal associate at Olujimi and Akeredolu Legal Practitioners Abuja between 2005 and 2007.
Ms Gafar studied Law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria between 1997 and 2002 and attended the Nigerian Law School in 2004 to obtain her Bachelor of Laws.
Marcus-Obiene’ Fernández’s profile on the Tsedaqah Attorneys website describes him as “a commercial and technology dispute resolution (litigation and ADR) specialist.”
His main skills and interests, according to the profile, are “technology and emerging trends, data protection and privacy, artificial intelligence for law and law for artificial intelligence, gamification of law, intellectual property, advice on new companies, robotic governance, web 3.0 and metaverse, and resolving disputes in all these areas.”
Senior member of the Technology Lawyers Initiative and team leader at Innovation Law Club Africa, Mr. Fernandez holds an LL.B. degree from the Niger Delta University, Nigeria, and an LL.M. Graduate in LegalTech from Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania.
Mr. Obamuroh resides in Paris, France, where he works as an associate in the International Arbitration Group of White & Case.
His profile on the White & Case website describes his practice area to include international commercial and investment arbitration.
Prior to joining White & Case, Mr. Obamuroh worked at Babalakin & Co. Legal Practitioners and was subsequently Associate General Counsel of the Lagos Court of Arbitration. He was recently co-president of the Young ICCA (International Council for Commercial Arbitration).
Mr. Obamuroh attended Obafemi Awolowo University, the Nigerian Law School and Columbia Law School, where he obtained a Master of Laws degree.
Ahmed Wada, a Kano lawyer, is the immediate past vice president of the Ungogo branch of the Nigerian Bar Association in Kano. He also served as president of the NBA Young Lawyers Forum from 2016-2018.
Mr Oyedepo is an employee of the EFCC. A senior prosecutor at the agency, Mr. Oyedepo, rose to become Nigeria’s Chief Advocate.
He was one of the EFCC officials victimized along with the then acting chairman of the agency, Ibrahim Magu, by former AGF, Abubakar Malami, who instigated an investigation into the agency to overthrow Mr. Magu. The investigation report remains top secret to this day.
In one of Oyedepo’s signature cases, he helped the anti-graft agency secure the final confiscation of N9.2 billion, $8.4 million linked to former Nigerian first lady Patience Jonathan in 2019.
Similarly, in 2018, Oyedepo secured the confiscation of N664 million, $137,680 from the Nigerian government from a former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Productivity, Clement Onubuogo.
Given Mr Oyedepo’s vast experience in criminal prosecution, he will assist the AGF in advancing the federal government’s anti-corruption agenda.
In what appeared to be the AGF’s response to address inter-agency rivalry between law enforcement institutions, Mr. Fagbemi, while being vetted in the Senate for the post of Minister of Justice, promised to advise President Tinubu on the separation of the EFCC and the ICPC removing procedural jurisdiction. powers, thus leaving them only with the investigation of corruption cases.
