Mr Olatunji Olaonipekun Okoya

Mr Olatunji Olaonipekun Okoya

Head, Nuclear Safety and Security Department

 

Mr. Olatunji Olaonipekun Okoya is an experienced nuclear regulator and radiation safety specialist who joined the NNRA as a pioneer staff member in 2002. Employed as a Regulatory Officer, he carried out safety inspections and also worked in the licensing unit where he drafted licences and developed licensing conditions for various practices. He rose through the ranks to become a Deputy General Manager In 2019.

Mr Okoya is an indigene of Lagos State. He attended Saka Tinubu Memorial High School, Orile, Agege and Ogunmodede College, Papa Epe, Lagos. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources from the National Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology, Research Centre of Saclay, France. He has a Master’s Degree in Radiation and Environmental Protection from the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

Mr Okoya served as the pioneer Head of the Secondary Standards Dosimetry Laboratory (SSDL) at the National Institute of Radiation Protection and Research (NIRPR), the Technical Support Organization (TSO) of the NNRA in Ibadan between 2007 and 2010. He was deployed to the South-South Zonal Office in Rivers State as the Zonal Coordinator in 2010. He has also served as the Zonal Coordinator of the South-West Zonal Office, Lagos between April 2014 and January 2024.

The officer has attended several training courses, workshops, conferences and fellowships in radiation protection and safety, nuclear Security and radiation metrology

Through an IAEA project in 2007, Okoya led a team that collected disused high-risk radioactive sources from different parts of Nigeria, relocated some to the temporary storage facility in Zaria, and exported others to their manufacturers.

In 2009, the Officer supervised the installation of the first Radiation Portal Monitor (RPM) at the export terminal of NAHCO shed, Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. He also verified the commissioning tests and performance characteristics of the new RPM installed in 2020.

He has served as a subject matter expert to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the Regional Training Course on Security of Radioactive Materials in Use and Storage

He currently serves as Nigeria’s representative on the Thematic Working Group on Transport Safety Infrastructure (TWG5) of the Forum of Nuclear Regulatory Bodies in Africa (FNRBA)

During his spell as the Zonal Coordinator South-West, he introduced reforms that brought about robust oversight activities. This has led to an increase of about 350% in the number of facilities brought under regulatory control in Lagos

Mr. Okoya is the current Head of Nuiclear Security and Safety Department at the NNRA Headquarters, Abuja