•Says ex-gov Bello stole $720,000 from Kogi State, on global watchlist
From Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Abuja
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has made startling revelations that banks in the country lost over N8 billion to internet fraud, otherwise known as Yahoo-Yahoo Boys, in 2022 and how former former governor, Yahaya Bello, allegedly moved a staggering $720,000 from Kogi State account to pay his child’s school fees.
The EFCC chairman who made the disclosure during an interactive session with media executives in Abuja, yesterday
He narrated how cyber crime has hurt the companies and its negative effects in attracting direct foreign investment for the country. He lamented that no fewer than 71 percent of companies operating in Nigeria were victims of cybercrime in 2022 even as he argued that the Commission’s war against internet fraud is about safeguarding the country’s future.
“In 2022 alone, I’m waiting for the report of 2023, we discovered that more than 71 percent of Nigerian industries, companies and firms fell victim to cyber crime. Now, which country or company would thrive with this kind of thing? “You want to attract foreign direct investment; the moment you come in, Yahoo boys will attack your platform. You start losing money and you think they would stay?
“Is that not what we are seeing? We are rescuing the future of Nigeria by going into this cyber crime investigation and prosecution.
“Now, within that period, the Nigerian economy lost $706 million (via) these companies through cyber crime, to the activities of these Yahoo Yahoo boys because we don’t take them seriously now, not knowing that we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
“The alarming statistics continued with Nigerian banks losing over N8 billion to electronic transfer fraud in the first nine months of 2022.
“A system lost over N8 billion to a particular scheme of fraud and you are asking EFCC to close its eyes to that kind of situation. Are we even fair to ourselves?”
He said the agency is prosecuting two of its operatives for violating the agency’s code of conduct.
He said the commission has made some reforms to enhance its fight against corruption, including the creation of the directorate of fraud risk assessment/control and ethics/integrity.
•300 Illicit forex accounts
The EFCC chairman also told newsmen that, in the last one week, over 300 illicit foreign exchange accounts were frozen as their activities, if left unchecked, could lead to another crash in the value of the country’s currency.
“We got an order to freeze those accounts. Somebody would come and ask us, ‘what is your business with forex transactions? Some people are happy; they take pleasure in seeing this country boiling and I’ve come to realise that in the course of this work, some people want to see things go bad! From bad to worse”
Olukoyede said over $15 billion passed through one of the platforms in the last year, which was not regulated by financial regulators.
“There are people in this country doing worse than Binance,” he said.
•419 training schools
More alarming, he said, is the existence of 419 training schools across the country. “We’ve discovered that, in almost all the states of Nigeria, all the sub-nationals, we have what we call ‘419 training schools’ where they harvest our children from primary schools.
“When they leave school, they end up in some of these 419 training schools. They start indoctrinating them. These are facts. They even ask their parents to sign an undertaking. After that, they induct them and some of these fraud tests start paying their school fees and indoctrinate them into cyber crime; as young as they are… Even children of those from wealthy homes are doing it now. It’s a trend!
“Now, Nigeria’s yearly loss to internet fraud amounted to over $500 million. In one year! This is according to the Nigeria Communications Commission…”
The EFCC boss revealed that the agency has created a cybercrime research centre where convicted Yahoo Yahoo boys, would be trained to channel their knowledge to positive aspects of the society.
•Humanitarian Affairs Ministry
On the ongoing investigations in the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry, with the suspension of the minister, Dr. Betta Edu, the EFCC chairman disclosed that the probe was beyond the minister.
He gave details of how trillions of government funds were moved out of the ministry’s accounts. “N14 billion, under one hour, was moved. You call that a system? I told people, ‘look, the people that have been suspended, if we had replaced them by now, even if you had brought saints into that ministry, in 24 hours, that saint would be contaminated.
“So, it’s not about Betta Edu neither is it about Halima. Let’s not personalise the matter; let’s not single out an individual. It’s about the system. It’s the system we are investigating. So, whosoever is found culpable, along the line, are the people that would be held.
“If I’m running after Betta Edu or Halima, and hundreds of other people are stealing money… Do you think this investigation started during Betta Edu’s time? Do you think it started during Halima? Do you even think it started during Sadiyya’s time as minister?
“Before that ministry was established, every single kobo that was allocated to that ministry was under investigation.
“So, we are talking of trillions (of naira). If we keep talking about Betta Edu, we won’t get anywhere. We would go back to where we are coming from. So, let us take our time and, in any case, when did we even start this investigation?
“I’ve said it before, we are investigating over 50 accounts. You must understand some of these processes. For each account, we write letters to banks and the banks reply. From there, we get other leads. From there, we follow those leads again and we start writing letters. Sometimes, it takes two, three weeks for them to reply. We bring people, we interview them. We run after those ones. Investigation takes time. I’ve not come out to say I’ve indicted so and so person. What I said was that we have recovered so, so amount.”
•Bello on global watchlist
On the Bello saga, the anti-graft agency chief said the embattled former governor, through the Government House cashier, transferred $720,000 to a Bureau de Change before leaving office to offset his child’s school fees, shortly before leaving office.
He also disclosed that having resisted arrest and has been declared wanted, Bello is now on a global watchlist.
He revealed how he offered executive services for Bello’s interrogation at the EFCC’s corporate headquarters and how it was turned down.
“Remember the case we had with his (Bello) Government House cashier, the guy that was bringing the billions… He moved money. The particulars of offence are there (before the court). Go and check it. You will get the particulars of offence there. He moved money directly from the government house coffers to a Bureau de Change.
“He used it to pay the child’s school fees in advance; dollars. He moved $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 that I’m being used. Used by who? At this stage of my life? By who, for crying out loud?
“I didn’t initiate the case. I inherited the case file. I called for the report and I said ‘there are issues here.’
“Do you know that, on my own, on my honour, I put a call across to Yahaya Bello, which ordinarily I was not supposed to, but I did, to honour him as a former governor. I told him: ‘Sir, there are issues. I’ve seen this case file. Can you just come? Let’s clarify these issues.’ He said he couldn’t come because there’s a senator, a female senator who had positioned over 100 journalists around EFCC to embarrass him and all kinds of stuff. I told him, ‘if that’s your fear, I’m going to pass you through the chairman’s gate. You will come to my floor and we will accord you that respect, I will invite my operatives to interview you in my own office.’
“What could be more honourable than that? I offered that he would be interrogated in my office, to allay his fears. You know what he said? ‘Can’t they come to my village?’ He later went out to say we are hounding him.”
On what transpired at Bello’s Wuse Zone 4 residence, where he evaded arrest, Olukoyede vowed, “everyone who obstructed his arrest would be arrested and we are building a case against those who obstructed justice.
“It was the Kogi State High Court that gave EFCC the leave to file charges against Bello in Abuja. The judge gave us a warrant of arrest, that, anywhere we see Yahaya Bello, we should arrest him, pursuant to the ruling of the Kogi High Court…
“We met over 20 armed policemen, armed to the teeth (at Bello’s residence). We would have exchanged fire but if we had done that, there would have been casualties. If one or two people had been killed in the crossfire, what would Nigerians say? Nigerians would have condemned us…Exchanging fire with other service men was not expedient on that day and nobody would have asked me to do it.”
•Immunity not everlasting
In a veiled reference to the role played by Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, in allegedly helping Bello evade arrest, the EFCC chairman said: “If you have immunity today, it doesn’t mean you would have immunity tomorrow…The world is looking at us. Some people went to carry placards and were protesting, they sold out their conscience. For how much?”
On Ododo’s alleged involvement in whisking Bello from arrest at his residence, Olukoyede said: “We have forensic evidence. If he (Bello) had surrendered himself, there would have been no reason to declare him wanted. He has been watchlisted all over the world. He can only run. Why is he not submitting himself to the law? Why is he not coming out?”
Olukoyede said he would resign from the EFCC if he does not prosecute Bello to a logical conclusion.
“If I do not personally oversee the completion of the investigation regarding Yahaya Bello, I will tender my resignation as the EFCC chair.”
The EFCC boss also vowed that everyone involved in obstructing Bello’s arrest from his Abuja residence will face the full wrath of the law.
The EFCC seeks to arraign Bello on 19 counts of money laundering and misappropriation of Kogi funds to the tune of N80 billion.