Ola Olukoyede, chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has appointed Michael Nzekwe as his chief of staff.

As part of a restructuring drive, Olukoyede upgraded all the zonal commands of the EFCC to departments and appointed 14 new directors.

A statement by Dele Oyewale, EFCC spokesperson, said the security unit of the agency has been upgraded to a department with a chief security officer at the helm.

“To this effect, 14 new directors have been appointed to head each of the zonal commands,” Oyewale said.

Additionally, to bolster and fortify the security architecture of the commission, the security unit of the EFCC has been upgraded to a department with a seasoned officer appointed as director, security and chief security officer.

“A new department has also been created in the executive chairman’s office and it is headed by former Makurdi zonal commander of the EFCC, Mr. Friday Ebelo who also doubles as director and coordinator, special duties at the corporate headquarters of the commission.”

Nzekwe was the commander of the Ilorin zonal command and a course one officer.

Nzekwe, a lawyer and an investigator, has served in various departments in the anti-graft agency — including legal and prosecution, operations (now department of investigations), internal affairs (now department of ethics and integrity), Servicom, and asset forfeiture.

The new chief of staff has attended trainings and courses at home and abroad, including the Advance Defence Intelligence Officers Course organised by Defence Intel Agency (DIA).

 Sierra Leone’s minister of energy, Kanja Sesay, has resigned after weeks of electricity crisis in the West African nation.

According to BBC, in his resignation letter on Friday, Sesay said he took full responsibility for the crisis.

In a statement, the government said the energy ministry has been placed under the direct supervision of President Julius Maada Bio, who will be assisted by two other officials.

Sesay’s resignation came hours after the government paid $18.5 million to two power providers, Turkish Karpowership and Transco-CLSG group.

Sierra Leone owed the two producers $40 million.

After two months of outages, power was restored in Freetown after the payments were announced.

Since mid-April, Freetown and the cities of Bo, Kenema and Koidu have experienced multi-day stretches without electricity.

Karpowership confirmed the payment in a statement.

“We are pleased to confirm that the electricity supply has returned to full capacity in Freetown,” the statement reads.

The company has been supplying electricity to Sierra Leone since 2018 from a floating offshore unit, but it had reduced its capacity from 65 megawatts to just five in recent months due to payment issues.

It had previously cut supplies to Sierra Leone in September over unpaid bills.

In October, it briefly cut power to Guinea-Bissau, saying it had been left with no option “following a protracted period of non-payment”.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has confirmed the receipt of the refund of $760,000 paid as advanced school fees by a former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello for his children at the American International School, Abuja.

Dele Oyewale, spokesperson for the EFCC, confirmed the development to The Post on Saturday.

“The school has refunded the entire $ 760, 000 to the EFCC’s recovery account,” he said.

Earlier, the American International School of Abuja had asked the EFCC to provide “authentic banking details” for the refund of fees paid for the children of the former governor.

Bello allegedly paid $720,000 in advance as fees for five of his children from the coffers of the Kogi State Government.

The children are in Grade Levels 2 to 8 at the school.

On April 17, EFCC operatives laid siege on Bello’s residence in Abuja in an attempt to arrest him over an alleged N80.2 billion fraud.

While the operatives were at the house, Usman Ododo, governor of Kogi, arrived at the property and reportedly whisked Bello away.

In a letter addressed to the Lagos Zonal Commander of the EFCC, the school said the sum of $845,852 has been paid in tuition “since the 7th of September 2021 to date.”

AISA said the sum to be refunded is $760,910 because it had deducted educational services already rendered.

“Please forward to us an official written request, with the authentic banking details of the EFCC, for the refund of the above-mentioned funds as previously indicated as part of your investigation into the alleged money laundering activities by the Bello family,” the letter reads.

It added, “Since the 7th September 2021 to date, $845,852.84 in tuition and other fees have been deposited into our bank account.

We have calculated the net amount to be transferred and refunded to the State, after deducting the educational services rendered as $760,910.84.

“No further additional fees are expected in respect of tuition as the students’ fees have now been settled until they graduate from ASIA.”

The school said it would draw the attention of the anti-graft agency if there were any further deposits by the Bello family.

In a statement signed by Greg Hughes, AISA also said, “Ali Bello contacted the school on Friday 13 August 2021 requesting to pay the family school fees in advance until the students graduate from High School.”

The Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, had earlier revealed that the former governor transferred $720,000 from the government’s coffers to a bureau de change before leaving office to pay in advance for his child’s school fee.
Olukoyede revealed this during an interview with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said, “A sitting governor, because he knows he is going, moved money directly from government to bureau de change, used it to pay the child’s school fee in advance, $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 of ‘I’m being used.’ Being used by who at this stage of my life?”