The American International School of Abuja (AISA) has agreed to refund $760,910.80 allegedly paid to the school by former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, as part of suspected money laundering activities.
Bello allegedly paid a total of $845,852.84 from the Kogi State government’s accounts to AISA as tuition fees for five of his children.
Four of the children were at the time enrolled at the school from grade levels 2 to 8, while the fifth payment was for a “future student to be enrolled.”
Bello, who is under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is facing a 19-count charge of alleged money laundering to the tune of N84bn once arrested.
In a letter to the EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Commander, AISA admitted receiving the $845,852.84 payment from the Bello family starting on September 7, 2021.
After deducting fees for “educational services rendered,” the school calculated that $760,910.80 should be refunded to EFCC.
The letter stated: “We have calculated the net amount to be transferred and refunded to the state, after deducting the educational services rendered as $760,910.84 (Seven Hundred and Sixty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ten U.S Dollars and Eighty-Four Cents).”
The school’s management asked the EFCC to provide official banking details to facilitate the refund payment related to the alleged money laundering activities by the former governor who was recently declared wanted by the EFCC.
The letter further read, “We have calculated the net amount to be transferred and refunded to the state, after deducting the educational services rendered as $760,910.84 (Seven Hundred and Sixty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ten U.S Dollars and Eighty-Four Cents)
“No further additional fees are expected in respect of tuition as the students’ fees have now been settled until they graduate from ASIA.”
An EFCC source who confirmed the authenticity of the letter to NewsNGR said Bello paid the fees ahead “to cover the period of the education (of his kids) at the school”.
The official could not confirm if the school can be deemed complicit in the ex-governor’s alleged money laundering activities.
‘Unprecedented Suffering, Hardship’ Under Bello
NewsNGR earlier reported that a petition filed by a civil society group named Kogi Conscience had accused Bello and the 21 LG chairmen who served in his administration of diverting over N300bn allocated to the local governments through a joint account controlled by the state government.
Among those named as alleged culprits is the current Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, who served as the Auditor-General for Local Government under Bello’s administration.
The petitioners said despite the huge allocations, there was “unprecedented maladministration, deprivation and under-development” in the LGAs under Bello, with civil servants going for months without full salaries.
The petitioners said the alleged funds’ diversion resulted in “unprecedented suffering and hardship to our people with records of several deaths and stories of hunger, starvation and withdrawal of wards from institutions of learning.”