FG plotting to skim N13.5bn from treasury through school feeding programme

…Says using children to steal is sacrilegious

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the school feeding programme by the federal government is a huge scam.

It alleged that running such a programme when schools are shut due to COVID-19 pandemic, is a scheme by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and officials in the Presidency to siphon N13.5 billion public funds.

The party described the use of innocent school children as cover to steal and funnel not less than N679 million daily to private purses as “sacrilegious, wicked and completely unpardonable.”

In a statement Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party deflated the APC-led administration’s school feeding programme even when schools are closed as a colossal racketeering taken too far.

The PDP said “This goes to further expose that stealing and corruption are deeply engrained in the DNA of the APC and its administration.

“While the PDP has nothing against any transparent effort to provide succour to Nigerians, particularly our children at this critical time, our party rejects the on-going fraud in which school children, who are in their respective homes, bearing the brunt of the failures of the APC administration, are being used as metaphors to divert public funds to a few corrupt individuals in the Buhari Presidency.

“Nigerians are witnesses to how the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Umar Farouq, had always made conflicting pronouncements and points to Mr. President’s speech as a cover each time Nigerians demand for details of her humongous spending.

“The minister had failed to provide details of how she intends to reach the 9.7 million school children, who are now in their homes in different locations since the closure of schools, even as officials continue to muddle up required documentation in a bid to cover their tracks.”

The party urged Nigerians to note how the minister contradicted herself in claiming that the food would be shared door-to door and in the same breath, averred that vouchers would be allocated at specific collection times to avoid over-crowding.

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“Such contradiction only betrays an unwholesome tendency, as Nigerians wonder how there would be over-crowding on door-to-door distribution of food to children who are claimed to have been individually designated in various locations.

“Our party notes that critical stakeholders in the education sector, including the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and Concerned Parents and Educators (CPE) had also raised queries over this fraudulent scheme, which is already going the way of the N500 billion Social Investment Programme of the Buhari administration which the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, had earlier exposed as a huge scam.

“The PDP is worried that with the constant reference to President Buhari’s speech, it is clear that unscrupulous officials are cashing in on the situation to fleece the nation.

“If these officials indeed, mean well for the school children, they should hand over the funds to the ministry of education in the respective states for appropriate dispensation to properly identified and documented vulnerable children,” said the PDP.

The party therefore, charged President Buhari to take urgent steps to end the corruption that has pervaded his administration, particularly the use of innocent Nigerians as cover to steal public funds.