The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has alleged that the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, paid about $5 million as school fees for his children in Switzerland.
Dangote made the allegation on Sunday during a news conference at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, where he accused the NMDPRA boss of corruption and economic sabotage.
The billionaire businessman said the amount was spent on the secondary education of four of Ahmed’s children over a six-year period.
Although he did not name the schools, Dangote said the expenditure was far beyond the means of a public officer and raised serious concerns about conflicts of interest and the integrity of regulatory oversight in the downstream petroleum sector.
He called on the federal government to investigate the matter, stressing that such spending could not be justified by the income of a regulator.
Dangote calls for probe of NMDPRA boss over alleged corruption, economic sabotage
“I’ve had people complaining about a regulator who put his children in secondary school, and that education, which is six years for four children, cost Nigeria $5 million,” Dangote said.
He added that his own children attended secondary school in Nigeria, questioning why a public official would educate his children abroad at such a cost.
Dangote further alleged that one of Ahmed’s children recently graduated from Harvard University, saying the lifestyle and educational expenses of the NMDPRA boss did not align with his legitimate earnings.
Dangote said: “My children went to a Nigerian secondary school. They didn’t go outside Nigeria to attend secondary school.
“I don’t know why the authority chief executive, Mallam Farouk, has four of his children who he educated in Switzerland at the cost of $5 million for their secondary school education alone, not university.
“I know that one of them just finished Harvard. So, I want to see what kind of system we are operating that people are now busy destroying a country, taking money from the government, because his income does not match paying this kind of fees.”
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