Due to ongoing investigations into issues inside the ministry, the passports of Betta Edu, the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and Sadiya Umar-Farouq, her predecessor, have been confiscated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC.
As of the time this report was filed at 7 p.m., Edu, who arrived at the EFCC offices in Abuja at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, was still being questioned by the commission’s investigators.
It was revealed that managing directors of three commercial banks were also questioned on Tuesday over the N44 billion fraud that was discovered in the ministry, during the EFCC’s interrogation of the suspended minister.
It was revealed that managing directors of three commercial banks were also questioned on Tuesday over the N44 billion fraud that was discovered in the ministry, during the EFCC’s interrogation of the suspended minister.
The Edu scandal broke when a leaked memo showed that the suspended minister had instructed Oluwatoyin Madein, the Accountant-General of the Federation, to transfer N585 million to a private account held by Oniyelu Bridget. The ministry claimed that Bridget is currently employed as the Project Accountant for Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
The minister had stated that the accusations against her were unfounded and that the N585 million payment was intended for vulnerable populations in the states of Lagos, Ogun, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom.
In a statement, the minister’s media assistant, Rasheed Olarewaju, stated that it was permissible for civil servants to make payments into employees’ personal accounts, particularly those of project accountants.
The President suspended Edu on Monday in response to public outcry and gave her instructions to turn over to the ministry’s permanent secretary.
Edu accepted the invitation from the EFCC on Tuesday, and the investigators questioned her for a long time.
It was discovered that detectives had confiscated both her official and personal passports, preventing her from leaving the nation.
Seized passports
Investigators questioned Umar-Farouq, her predecessor, for twelve hours on Monday in relation to the investigation into the N37.1 billion that was purportedly laundered during her term in office through a contractor named James Okwete.
In accordance with the terms of her bail, the former minister’s passport was also seized before she was eventually freed late on Monday night.
An impeccable EFCC source said the passports of Edu and the former minister were seized to deter them from fleeing the country while the investigation subsists.
“The commission has seized the passports of the two ministers, Sadiya Shehu and Betta Edu. We have also seized Mrs Halima Shehu’s passport pending the conclusion of investigations. The commission does not want to risk having any of them leave the country while they still have questions to answer,” the source said.
Dipo Okpeseyi, SAN, the former minister’s attorney, did not answer calls, making it impossible to get in touch with him to discuss his client’s experience. Additionally, he ignored a message that asked for his opinion. Also, attempts to obtain Edu were unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, it was not immediately clear if she had been freed on Tuesday evening.
In addition to Edu, Ms. Halima Shehu, the CEO and National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme, a ministry-affiliated organization, had also been placed on temporary leave due to allegations of financial mismanagement.
Shehu had been arrested and questioned by the EFCC in connection with the movement of N44bn from the NSIPA account to certain suspect private and business accounts between the last four days in December 2023.
Allegedly, the enormous amount was transferred without the president’s consent.
Shehu has been reporting to the EFCC office every day to help investigators as part of her bail requirements.
Shehu was employed by former President Muhammadu Buhari as the National Coordinator of the Conditional Cash Transfer Program prior to her appointment.
Top EFCC sources told our correspondent on Tuesday that the senior bank officials were the subject of an investigation.
The banks had a significant role in the fraud that was being looked at, according to a reliable source with the EFCC.
“Our interrogators at the EFCC headquarters on Tuesday grilled the MDs of the banks,” the source disclosed. They were questioned in relation to the N44 billion fraud that was discovered and the N585 million that included Betta Edu and Halima Shehu.
“The suspended minister and the coordinator have both given new revelations during their interrogations, and the investigation is still ongoing.’’
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s 2023 presidential contender, expressed his thoughts on the scandals that were developing and charged the All Progressives Congress of utilizing the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and poverty reduction as a cash cow for succeeding administrations.
Atiku stated that while the minister Edu’s suspension was praiseworthy, it was insufficient.
In a statement released on Tuesday by Phrank Shaibu, his Special Assistant for Public Communication, Atiku said it was regrettable that a program intended to help over 100 million Nigerians escape extreme poverty had purportedly turned into a money-making venture for the APC administrations.
He said, “While Tinubu deserves commendation for suspending Edu, we believe this is a belated move. Firstly, he had no business appointing her as a minister of such a sensitive ministry in the first place. Tinubu put politics ahead of competence, hence this scandal.
“What experience did Betta have in the development sector? How was Imaan Ibrahim, with her wealth of experience, overlooked? How did the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, stand as Betta Edu’s referee during her clearance at the Senate?”
Atiku who called for reform of the Ministry, alleged that it was not only Edu that was involved in the transactions.
“Betta Edu should not be the fall guy. Others who have remotely and wickedly benefitted from money that was meant for poor Nigerians ought to be fished out, probed, and prosecuted too. It is demonic and tendentiously wicked to steal in the name of the poor, he stated.
The statement read in part, “There is a need for the government to reform the humanitarian affairs ministry and other interventionist programmes that had become an ATM and POS for those in power.
“He noted that the fact that the previous Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, was also being probed for N37bn fraud was evidence that immediate and urgent actions need to be taken to reform the ministry.
“Even during the COVID-19 lockdown, Umar-Farouq continued to implement the school feeding programme. She ridiculously claimed that the food would be delivered to the students at home since schools were shut.
“Today, Betta Edu claims that over three million households got N20,000 each during the Yuletide. Sadly, there is no evidence of millions of Nigerians getting such money. This shows that money has just been going into private pockets.
“The scandal that we are contending with is not about Betta Edu, nor about Halima Shehu, or any other rogue element for that matter. It is about a problem of systemic corruption through which the APC continues to bleed the treasury, ironically, asphyxiating the poor and vulnerable segment of the country, all in the name of caring for them.
“The APC has weaponized poverty and hunger to control the minds of the vulnerable masses, and it is even worse that they have devised a method to use poverty as an instrument of official corruption.”
APC slams Atiku
Reacting, the APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, cautioned the former vice president against jumping to conclusions, noting that Edu is not guilty until the allegations against her are proven.
He berated Atiku and the PDP, saying they faced more corrupt allegations than Edu and the APC.
Ibrahim stated, “Atiku, from his record, it was said somewhere that he read elementary law. And if indeed he read law at whatever level, even if it is a kindergarten level, ought to know that the presumption of the law on an accused is that he is innocent until proven guilty.’’
The APC official noted that the way President Tinubu responded to the allegations showed that ‘’he is a president that listens to the yearnings of Nigeria and that will act by the provision of the law.’’
He added, “At the stage, we are now, a thorough investigation has been directed; it will be wrong for anyone to jump to the conclusion that there is theft or that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs is a conduit that is made to siphon public funds for APC governments.
“If it is, the investigations will not have been directed, and the government would not have acted swiftly and appropriately it did.”
On the allegation that the APC is a corrupt party, Ibrahim clarified, “If you say because a few people in the APC who are accused of wrongdoing are to limit wrongdoings to the APC, then, one is not being fair to the composition of parties.”
He continued, “In Nigeria, and I am sure like in other countries of the world, there is no party that is composed of saints, there is no party that can beat its chest and say its members are infallible.
“What is important is to see that the party they belong to has the willingness, the desire, and the courage to call them to order when they go wrong. The APC and the President of the country, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have demonstrated that willingness.
“If on the basis of allegations you will jump to conclusion, the PDP will not be in a position to talk because ever since the formation of the party in Nigeria, there has not been any party that has faced allegations of corruption like the PDP.”
