Tunde Bakare
The Executive Chairman (EC) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr Ola Olukoyede has called on corps members across the country to position themselves as catalysts for national development.
He made the call on Thursday, June 18,2026, while addressing the 2026 Batch B Stream I corps members at the NYSC Orientation camp, Okada, Edo State.
The Chairman, who spoke through the Head of Public Affairs Department, Benin Zonal Directorate, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE1 Williams Oseghale charged the youths to see themselves as new breed who are ready to take up challenges and make substantial contributions to the nation’s growth and development.
“There comes a time in the life of every individual when such decisions are imperative and you have come to such a season,” adding that “it is not enough to see yourselves as youths in today’s Nigeria, you need to see and carry ourselves as new breed youths. A new breed youth should be angry with the failures of the past and develop strengths for successes. As new breed youth, decide to be a solution, rather than a problem, a builder not a breaker.”
He noted that, for youths to become true agents of change and development, they must shun corruption which has stagnated the country’s growth. “Corruption has been the bane of our development. It has been a stain on our national image, a clog on the wheel of our development and a threat to our collective future”, he said.
At the NYSC Orientation Camp, Issele Ukwu, Delta State, Superintendent of the EFCC, SE Mohammed Aminu Chuwang who represented the EFCC’s boss warned the youth to shun internet fraud and embrace genuine and honest ways to eke a living. “Don’t follow the multitude to do evil. Be creative, innovative, enterprising and resourceful”, he said.
In Lagos, at the NYSC Orientation Camp, Iyana Ipaja, Olukoyede charged corps members to take ownership of the anti-corruption fight by actively engaging in public enlightenment and serving as whistleblowers against corrupt practices in their places of primary assignment.
Speaking through the Head, Public Affairs Department, EFCC Lagos 2, Babatunde Suliaman, the EFCC’s Chair stressed that, “another way of being a new breed youth is to be a whistleblower. Exposing corrupt practices around you is not only obligatory, it is also patriotic. The EFCC is relying on you to always expose shady deals in your environments. To conveniently do this, you can use the Eagle Eye App, which is a digital application to report corruption cases. Images can be uploaded on it and the whistle blower may send his or her report anonymously”
Also, in Port Harcourt, at the NYSC Orientation camp in Nonwa-Gbam, Tai Local Government Area, Rivers State, Olukoyede pointed out that “no serious-minded and future-building youth will sit and allow his or her future to be mortgaged through internet fraud, fraudulent engagement and other related offences which are pervasive among the youths”. He cautioned them not to fall into the pit of crimes as there are genuine and credible means of livelihood that can be embraced. Reiterating the fact that there are alternatives to cybercrimes, the EFCC’s boss, represented by SE Akpos Mezeh-Ekisowei, Head, Public Affairs Department, Port Harcourt Zonal Directorate, charged corpers to challenge themselves positively in order to chart a better course for their future.
Warning the corps members against corruption in Enugu at the Orientation camp in Awgu local government area of Enugu State, the EFCC’s boss, represented by SE Paul Ikpor, Head, Public Affairs Department, Enugu Zonal Directorate, enjoined them to stay away from fraudulent engagements as anti-social behaviours easily breed terror. He added that hunger, diseases, untimely death, banditry, inflation, indebtedness, unemployment and other issues of social dislocation are caused by corruption.
Similar messages are relayed to corps members in other locations across the country. Such locations include NYSC Orientation camps in Kano, Ibadan, Maiduguri, Uyo, Ilorin, Abuja, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Makurdi, Ado-Ekiti and Sokoto states.