Since Tuesday afternoon, several media reports have claimed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) donated N50 billion to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) from proceeds of crime.

These reports credit the EFCC with making the claim after Akunwunmi Sawyerr, head of NELFUND, visited the antigraft agency in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to one such report, Sawyerr thanked the Ola Olukoyede-led EFCC for the donation and invited the agency to regulate their use of the funds.

The source of these reports was a statement the EFCC published on Tuesday after the meeting.

READ ALSO: UPDATED: EFCC Disappears From X

Screenshot of some reports on the topic. Source: Google

CLAIM: EFCC donated N50 billion to NELFUND from proceeds of crime.

READ ALSO: UPDATED: EFCC Disappears From X

VERIFICATION: On Wednesday afternoon, FIJ called Dele Oyewale, EFCC spokesman, to comment on the claim. Oyewale said he read the reports and was taken aback as it was untrue.

FIJ asked his official position on the matter, and he said he had reached at least one of the newspapers which published the story, and told them the EFCC never donated any money.

“We put the money into the federation account as is required of us, and then the president directed that N50 billion of the money be paid to NELFUND, and another N50 billion be put into the Consumer Credit Corporation,” he told FIJ.

FIJ also found that this directive, as Oyewale described, was contained in President Bola Tinubu’s August 4 address to the nation.

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The president said during his address: “This week, I ordered the release of an additional N50billion each for NELFUND – the student loan, and Credit Corporation from the proceeds of crime recovered by the EFCC.”

In December 2023, the Ministry of Finance ordered all ministries, departments and agencies to remit 100% of their internally generated revenue (IGR) to the Sub-Recurrent Account, a sub-component of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

The EFCC would have run foul of this directive if it had done with the funds any other thing than remit it into the federation account.

CONCLUSION: Reports on the EFCC’s meeting with NELFUND were misrepresented as a follow-up to a donation as the facts show. The money deposited into the fund was sourced from the agency, but the decision on how it would be used was made by the president.

VERDICT: The claim that the EFCC donated N50 billion to NELFUND is false.
The post FACT-CHECK: Did EFCC Donate N50bn to NELFUND as Claimed? appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.