PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has suspended the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, over a scandal rocking the disbursement of public funds into a private account.
He has also directed the 37-yearold minister to hand over to the ministry’s Permanent Secretary and “fully cooperate with the investigating authorities as they conduct their investigation..
Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, in a statement on Monday, July 8, said Tinubu also ordered the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, “to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions,” involving the ministry and “one or more agencies thereunder.
“Furthermore, the President has tasked a panel headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to, among other functions, conduct a comprehensive diagnostic on the financial architecture and framework of the social investment programmes with a view to conclusively reforming the relevant institutions and programmes in a determined bid to eliminate all institutional frailties for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households and win back lost public confidence in the initiative.”
Ironically , the EFCC is presently probing Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Umar Farouq, over alleged laundering of N37.1billion during her tenure under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Farouq, who was earlier invited to appear before the EFCC last week, but did not show up, because her lawyer said he was unwell, finally arrived at the headquarters of the anti-graft agency on Monday, January 8 to meet with interrogators over an ongoing probe into the N37,170,855,753.44 allegedly laundered during her tenure through a contractor, James Okwete, who was arrested and earlier quizzed by operatives of the Commission.
The former minister tweeted about her presence at the EFCC headquarters around 10.20 am, saying: “I have, at my behest, arrived at the headquarters of the EFCC to honour the invitation by the anti-graft agency to offer clarifications in respect of some issues that the Commission is investigating.”
