Categories: Latest News

Student loan: Lawyer condemns diversion of N50bn recovered funds

A legal practitioner, Mr Nnaemeka Ejiofor, has faulted the donation of N50 billion recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the NELFUND student loan scheme.

The lawyer told the Nigerian Tribune that the anti-graft agency “has no legal authority or powers to donate funds to NELFUND or anybody whatsoever, just like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has no such legal powers.”

According to the legal practitioner, “every loot recovered was looted from a project. Such recoveries ought to be channelled back to the project from which they were looted so as to have that project satisfied or executed.

“Where the project or expenditure head under which the funds were looted has been satisfied and the excess or padded money is looted when recovered, it should be transferred to the consolidated revenue account (CRA) or the excess crude account for savings.”.

He said the Act that created the EFCC did not stipulate that it could donate money or give loans or grants, adding that doing so would amount to misappropriation of funds.

Ejiofor told the Tribune Online that all monies recovered for the federal government ought to be paid into the federal government account, just as all monies recovered for the states ought to be paid into state Treasury accounts, and those recovered for the local government should be paid into the local government account if the country is running a proper federal government system.

He said, “However, we see a situation where the EFCC, being a federal government agency, will recover money for the local government and appropriate it to the federal government account, or even worse, donate it to some other people. This is wrong and a serious breach of the law.”

Meanwhile, the EFCC denied reports in a section of the media on August 14, 2024, claiming that the Commission donated N50 billion to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, from its recovery account.

A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of the anti-graft agency, Mr Dele Oyewale, said the said fund was not a donation by the Commission but part of the recovered proceeds of crime remitted to the government.

The EFCC spokesman said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in furtherance of his social intervention policy for the most vulnerable segments of the population, decided to plough the money into funding the critically acclaimed student loan scheme.

Oyewale clarified that it is not the place of the EFCC to determine where the government commits and recovers proceeds of crime, but that the student loan scheme is a salutary innovation that has the potential to reduce youth involvement in criminality.

He said, “As the Commission’s Chairman, Ola Olukoyde, 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, the EFCC will monitor the use of the funds to ensure accountability and the realisation of the objectives of the scheme.”

ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE