Edu, who arrived at the EFCC
headquarters, Abuja at 10am on Tuesday, was still being quizzed by the
commission’s investigators as of the time of filing this report at 7pm.
As the EFCC interrogated the suspended
minister over the N44bn fraud uncovered in the ministry, it was learnt that
managing directors of three commercial banks were also questioned on Tuesday
over the fraud.
The scandal involving Edu burst
open after a leaked memo revealed that the suspended minister directed the
Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer N585m to a
private account owned by one Oniyelu Bridget, who the ministry claimed
currently serves as the Project Accountant, Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
The minister had claimed that
the N585m payment was meant for vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River,
Ogun, and Lagos states, describing the allegations against her as baseless.
The Media Assistant to the
minister, Rasheed Olarewaju, said in a statement that it was legal within the
civil service for such payments to be made into private accounts of staff
members, especially project accountants.
In deference to public pressure,
the President on Monday suspended Edu and directed her to hand over to the
permanent secretary in the ministry.
On Tuesday, Edu honoured the
EFCC invitation and she was subjected to marathon interrogation by
investigators.
It was learnt that her personal
and official passports were taken away by detectives and she was barred from
travelling out of the country.
Passports
seized
Her predecessor, Umar-Farouq,
had been quizzed by investigators for 12 hours on Monday in connection with the
probe into the N37.1bn allegedly laundered during her tenure in office, through
a contractor, James Okwete.
The ex-minister’s passport was
also seized as part of her bail conditions before she was subsequently released
late 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.
The lawyer to the former
minister, Dipo Okpeseyi, SAN, could not be reached for comment on his client’s
ordeal as he did not respond to phone calls. He also did not respond to a
message seeking his comment. Also, efforts to get Edu did not succeed
The PUNCH could not immediately
confirm whether she was released on Tuesday night.
Apart from Edu, Ms Halima
Shehu, the National Coordinator and CEO of the National Social Investment
Programme, an agency under the humanitarian ministry, had been similarly
suspended indefinitely over alleged financial misappropriation.
Shehu had been arrested and
questioned by the EFCC in connection with the movement of N44bn from the NSIPA
account to some suspicious private and corporate accounts within the last four
days in December 2023.
The huge sum was reportedly
moved without presidential approval.
As part of her bail conditions,
Shehu has been reporting to the EFCC office every day to assist investigators.
Before her appointment, Shehu
worked as the National Coordinator of the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme
under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Top EFCC sources confirmed the
probe of the senior bank executives to our correspondent on Tuesday.
An impeccable EFCC source
revealed that the banks were deeply involved in the fraud under investigation.
The source revealed, “The MDs
of the banks were grilled by our interrogators at the EFCC headquarters on
Tuesday. They were invited and are being probed in connection with the
uncovered N44bn fraud and the N585m involving Halima Shehu and Betta Edu.
“The suspended minister and the
coordinator have both given new revelations during their interrogations, and
the investigation is still ongoing.’’
Giving his opinion on the
unfolding scandals, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, accused the All Progressives
Congress of using the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and poverty alleviation
as a cash cow for successive governments.
Atiku said the suspension of
the minister, Edu, was commendable, but not enough.
Atiku in a statement by his
Special Assistant, Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Tuesday, described it
as unfortunate that a programme that was designed to lift over 100 million
Nigerians out of extreme poverty had allegedly become a cash cow for successive
APC governments.
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.
In a related development, the PDP has asked
the President to suspend and investigate the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi
Tunji-Ojo over his alleged involvement in a N438m contract awarded by Edu.
Tunji-Ojo had denied
involvement in the consultancy contract awarded to New Planet Project Limited,
a company in which he was a former director.
The minister explained that he
resigned as a director of the firm in 2019.
But the opposition party in a
statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, Tuesday asked
the President to take immediate action “to protect the resources meant for the
wellbeing of poor Nigerians from further plundering by suspending the Interior
minister over the alleged fraud and hand him over to the EFCC for investigation
like his suspended counterpart.’’
Interior
minister
Meanwhile, Tunji-Ojo has
dismissed reports claiming he was summoned to the Presidential Villa over
allegations of involvement in the humanitarian ministry scandal.
Rather, the minister said he
was at the State House to brief President Tinubu on the outcome of the recently
launched online passport portal.
Tunde Alao, the media aide to
the minister, in a statement on Tuesday, said Tunji-Ojo’s visit to Aso Rock was
to keep an earlier scheduled meeting with the president, stressing that he was
not summoned as speculated.
“The minister only visited Aso
Rock to keep an earlier scheduled meeting with President Tinubu. The
sensational social media headline that says the minister was summoned to Aso
Rock was quite misleading and should be discountenanced by Nigerians,’’ he
said.
Also, a former governor of Kano
State, Ibrahim Shekarau, has commended President Bola Tinubu on the suspension
of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu.
Shekarau commended Tinubu in an
interview on Channels Television on Tuesday.
(The PUNCH)
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