Ola Olukoyede, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said that over N120 billion have been recovered and 1,600 convictions made in his six months in office.
He made this assertion when he spoke with editors, Bureau Chiefs, and media executives at the EFCC Headquarters, Jabi, Abuja, on Tuesday, amid the raging controversy and counter-claims between the anti-graft agency and the ex-governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello.
“We keep recovering money every day. In my six months in office close to N120 billion have been recovered and 1,600 convictions made,” the EFCC boss said.
“We need EFCC, we need this institution to survive,” he added.
Olukoyede also disclosed that the embattled former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, withdrew $720,000 from the state’s coffers to pay his child’s school fees in advance.
Olukoyede noted that he didn’t initiate Bello’s case but inherited it and discovered some issues needed to be sorted.
He added that as a way of courtesy, he had personally called to invite him so he could clear the air but refused to honour the invitation.
Meanwhile, Bello is insisting that the attempt by the EFCC to arrest and prosecute him for an alleged N80.2bn fraud violated a February 6 order of the Federal High Court in Lokoja restraining the anti-graft agency.
He noted that though the EFCC had appealed the order, he could not be arrested or arraigned until the order had been lifted.
Following a failed attempt to arrest him in his Abuja residence last week Wednesday and the ex-governor’s absence from the Federal High Court where he was scheduled to be arraigned last Thursday, the EFCC declared him wanted.
Several political leaders, and civil society organisations including Kogi youths have described Bello’s arrest attempt by the EFCC as being politically motivated.
The Kogi House of Assembly has also called on the anti-graft agency to delist its former governor from its wanted list.
