Ola Olukoyede, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has said that the fifty billion naira, (N50bn), given to Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND was not a donation from the commission, but part of the recovered proceeds of crime remitted to the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The commission stated this in a statement obtained from its official Facebook handle.
According to the commission: “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, wishes to clarify the reports in a section of the media today, August 14, 2024, purporting that the Commission donated N50billion to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND from its recovery account.
“The said fund was not a donation by the Commission but part of the recovered proceeds of crime remitted to the government. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in furtherance of his social intervention policy for the most vulnerable segments of the population, decided in his wisdom, to plough the money into funding the critically acclaimed students loan scheme.
“It is not the place of the Commission to determine where the government commits recovered proceeds of crime. But the student’s loan scheme is a salutary innovation which has the potential to reduce youth involvement in criminality.
“As the Commission’s Chairman, Ola Olukoyede disclosed during a courtesy visit to the Commission by the NELFUND’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr on August, 13, 2024, that the EFCC will monitor the use of the funds to ensure accountability and the realization of the objectives of the Scheme”.
