The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has confirmed the receipt of the refund of $760,000 paid as advanced school fees by a former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello for his children at the American International School, Abuja.

The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, confirmed the development to our correspondent in Abuja on Friday.

“The school has refunded the entire $ 760, 000 to the EFCC’s recovery account,” he said.

Earlier, the American International School of Abuja had asked the EFCC to provide “authentic banking details” for the refund of fees paid for the children of the former governor.

Bello allegedly paid $720,000 in advance as fees for five of his children from the coffers of the Kogi State Government.

READ ALSO: Currency Manipulation: EFCC Arrests 34 Currency Speculators In Abuja

The children are in Grade Levels 2 to 8 at the school.

On April 17, EFCC operatives laid siege on Bello’s residence in Abuja in an attempt to arrest him over an alleged N80.2 billion fraud.

While the operatives were at the house, Usman Ododo, governor of Kogi, arrived at the property and reportedly whisked Bello away.

In a letter addressed to the Lagos Zonal Commander of the EFCC, the school said the sum of $845,852 has been paid in tuition “since the 7th of September 2021 to date.”

READ ALSO: EFCC Declares Ex-Kogi gov, Yahaya Bello Wanted

AISA said the sum to be refunded is $760,910 because it had deducted educational services already rendered.

“Please forward to us an official written request, with the authentic banking details of the EFCC, for the refund of the above-mentioned funds as previously indicated as part of your investigation into the alleged money laundering activities by the Bello family,” the letter reads.

It added, “Since the 7th September 2021 to date, $845,852.84 in tuition and other fees have been deposited into our bank account.

“We have calculated the net amount to be transferred and refunded to the State, after deducting the educational services rendered as $760,910.84.

“No further additional fees are expected in respect of tuition as the students’ fees have now been settled until they graduate from ASIA.”

READ ALSO: EFCC Withdraws Appeal Against Former Kogi Gov, Bello

The school said it would draw the attention of the anti-graft agency if there were any further deposits by the Bello family.

In a statement signed by Greg Hughes, AISA also said, “Ali Bello contacted the school on Friday 13 August 2021 requesting to pay the family school fees in advance until the students graduate from High School.”

The Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, had earlier revealed that the former governor transferred $720,000 from the government’s coffers to a bureau de change before leaving office to pay in advance for his child’s school fee.
Olukoyede revealed this during an interview with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said, “A sitting governor, because he knows he is going, moved money directly from government to bureau de change, used it to pay the child’s school fee in advance, $720,000 in advance, in anticipation that he was going to leave the Government House.

“In a poor state like Kogi, and you want me to close my eyes to that under the guise of ‘I’m being used.’ Being used by who at this stage of my life?”

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission attached to the Taskforce on Currency mutilation, Dollarization of the Economy and Forex Malpractice, have arrested 34 suspected currency speculators for alleged foreign exchange fraud.

They were arrested on Friday, April 26, 2024 in a sting operation following credible intelligence about illegal sales of dollars at the Wuse Zone 4 area of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.

A statement by EFCC Spokesman Dele Oyewale gave the names of the suspects as :Usman Mohammed, Abdullahi Nasir, Abubakar Saleh, Mohammed Kabir Ibrahim, Abubakar Ghadafi, Muktar Usman, Umar Abubakar Abba, Yakubu Sani, Aminu Abubakar, Muhammed Suleman Abara, Yusuf Tahir, Usman Lawal, Usman Lawal, Usman Umar and Amina Garba Rola.

READ ALSO: Three Suspected Pipeline Vandals Caught In Edo

The statement listed the other suspects as: Muhammed Aliyu, Murtala Haruna, Sani Mohammed, Umar Farouk, Muhammed Sagiuru, Aminu Salisu, Lawal Bello, Munzali Hashim, Jamilu Suleiman, Mustapha Umar, Mubarak Tanimu, Adamu Garba, Mohammed Usman, Bello Musa, Saleh Mohammed Naseer, Zaharadeen Yau, Musa Umaru Adamu, Usman Machido and Abdulaziz Abubakar Abba.

Oyewale said the Arrests came on the heels of the EFCC’s consistent efforts to sanitise and stabilise the foreign exchange market.

The Spokesman said that the suspects would soon be arraigned in court upon conclusion of investigations

By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

Environmental activists under the aegis of Coalition for a Clean Niger Delta (CCND), over the weekend called on President Bola Tinubu “to resolve the Ecocide (Environmental Genocide) in the Niger Delta, that increasingly threatens the continued existence of the entire region.”

This is contained in a statement jointly signed by Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and
Otive Igbuzor, Founding Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), and made available to INFO DAILY.

According to the duo, to address the ‘environmental genocide’ in the region, President Tinubu needs to urgently issue an “Executive Order creating a Niger Delta Environmental Remediation Programme and Trust Fund.”

READ ALSO: Oil Spill: Pay A Visit To Impacted N’Delta Communities, Environmental Activists Urge Tinubu

CCND said the Trust Fund, when established, could either be an independent body or or “domiciled in the extant Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) currently overseeing the cleanup of Ogoni Land, but with a separate Trust Fund from the Ogoni Trust Fund, an expanded Governing Council and an unimpeachable Management system designed to avoid the contradictions that have historically bedeviled HYPREP and the debatable progress of the Ogoni Cleanup.”

Outlining tasks of the Trust Fund, the environmental activists said “the Programme would include a definitive health audit besides the standard environmental audit of impacted areas.

“Adoption of the National Principles on Divestment and Decommissioning in the Nigerian Oil Industry in line with the one recently compiled by a wide coalition of community, civil society and international organizations, following extensive field missions and engagements in the Niger Delta.”

READ ALSO: Three Suspected Pipeline Vandals Caught In Edo

The duo, while stating that the Trust Fund would serve as a panacea for Oil theft and asset vandalisation, added that it would “minimize re-pollution, optimize production and abate associated insecurity, enact a carefully articulated approach to this economic crime (based on broad and in-depth stakeholder consultations, which we are prepared to be part of if required).”

They added: “The new strategy should be preventive, proactive, inclusive, accountable, and look beyond current official reliance on state and non-state military methods that can often be tragically counterproductive, as results have shown intermittently.”

On how to fund the Trust Fund, the environmental activists recommended that “the primary funding should be from the operators and JV partners in oil/petroleum leases, based on credible costings for remediation within their respective acreages and in line with the universal Polluter Pays Principle (PPP).”

They added: “Additional funding sources could include (I) the Environmental Remediation Fund created but yet to be operationalized under the Petroleum Industry Act, (II) gas flare penalties paid by operators, (III) part of the existing Ecological Fund, at least to cover immediate region wide impact and cost assessments, (IV) a portion of the statutory funds of the Niger Delta Development Commission, whose statutory mission expressly includes an ecological/pollution resolution mandate that is largely neglected since its  inception, (V) Decommissioning liabilities and restoring funds in oil mining agreements and (VI) international environmental, climate and impact funds/resources that can be leveraged through appropriate strategies and channels.”