Edu in EFCC net over alleged N585m fraud

By Andrew Orolua

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has invited the suspended for Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu for questioning.

She is to report on Tuesday (today) at the EFCC headquarters, located at Jabi, Abuja.

The anti graft agency extended the invitation to Edu on Monday, about an after President Bola Tinubu suspended her from office.

Edu was suspended following her involvement in a slew of alleged financial infractions, one of which was exposed in her leaked memo of December 20, 2023.

In the said memo, the suspended Minister had requested the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr Oluwatoyin Madein to pay N585 million into a UBA private bank account of one Bridget Oniyelu.

Edu had identified Oniyelu as a project account in the Humanitarian Affairs ministry, claiming that the funds were meant for onward disbursement to vulnerable groups in Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Lagos and Ogun states.

The minister had claimed in her memo that N219.4 million was to be transferred to vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom State; N73.8 million for those in Cross River State; N219.4 for Lagos State; and N72.4 million for Ogun State.

Her directive to pay the N585 million into a individual’s private bank account was in clear violation of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009.

The regulations stated that “Any officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention”.

It was gathered that the chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, had recommended Edu’s suspension to President Tinubu, to allow the agency’s investigators unfettered access to her.

The President had on Sunday ordered a thorough investigation into the financial scandal involving the suspended minister.

A Presidency source told our correspondent on Monday that Edu had rushed to the presidential villa to see Tinubu but that she was denied access to the President.

The source however said she was still at the villa when the President ordered her immediate suspension through a statement by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale.

Meanwhile, Edu’s predecessor in the Humanitarian Affairs ministry, Sadiya Farouq was also being grilled by the EFCC as at 6pm Monday evening.

She is answering questions over alleged laundering of N37 billion during her tenure as minister under the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari.

Farouq and Edu had consistently denied wrong doings while in office. They now have the opportunity to tell their stories to EFCC investigators.

The ongoing investigation of the suspended Humanitarian Affairs Minister and her predecessor, is said to have triggered anxiety among suspected beneficiaries of irregular contracts awarded by the ministry while the two women held sway.

Unconfirmed online reports on Monday listed a number of top government officials and private companies as some of the beneficiaries of contract bazaars in the Humanitarian Affairs ministry.

The individuals and companies were alleged to have received various sums running into hundreds of millions of Naira as payment for “National Social Register contract to verify 11million homes in Nigeria”.

The report added that all the companies claimed to have executed the contracts in less than two weeks.