Emmanuel OchayiThe return of $760,000 that former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello paid as advanced school fees for his children at the American International School, Abuja, has been validated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
A representative for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, stated that “the school has refunded the entire $760,000 to the EFCC’s recovery account.” This happened in response to a request made by the American International School of Abuja to the EFCC for “authentic banking details” to receive a refund of the fees paid for the former governor’s children.
Bello is accused of using funds from the Kogi State Government to pay $720,000 in advance for the education of five of his children. The kids attend the school and are enrolled in Grades 2 through 8. Bello’s Abuja home was previously under siege by the EFCC, which was trying to apprehend him for a purported N80.2 billion fraud.
The school stated in a letter to the EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Commander that $845,852 in tuition has been paid “since the 7th of September 2021 to date.” But after deducting the educational services already provided by the school, $760,910 was left as refundable money.
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The school has finally got the money that it requested from the EFCC, along with an official written request and genuine bank details. Before leaving office, the former governor sent $720,000 from the government coffers to a bureau de change to pay for his child’s school fee in advance, as disclosed earlier by EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede.
According to Olukoyede, who called the action a misappropriation of public funds, “a sitting governor, because he knows he is going, moved money directly from government to bureau de change, and 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.”
This development demonstrates the EFCC’s efforts to reclaim misappropriated public funds and fight corruption. The agency’s activities show that it is dedicated to making public servants responsible for their deeds, even after they have left government.
