Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq
By Our Reporter
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has distanced herself from the N2.67bn funds meant for school feeding programmes diverted into private bank accounts.
She denied the allegation via the ministry official tweeter handle.
Umar Farouq wrote: FMHDSD wishes to dissociate itself from a trending report in the media titled, “N2.72b for School Feeding During Lockdown Diverted To Private Accounts.”
The report emanated after a presentation by the Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye at the 2nd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption and was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday.
The report states thus “preliminary investigation had indicated that part of the N2.67billion was diverted to private accounts. It also revealed that over N2.5 billion was misappropriated by a senior civil servant (name withheld) in the ministry of agriculture and now deceased, for himself and cronies.”
The statement by ICPC was twisted and misinterpreted by mischief-makers and directed at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development hereby informs the public that the Federal Government Colleges school feeding in question is different from the Home Grown School Feeding which is one of its Social Investment Programmes.
That the School Feeding under scrutiny is feeding of students in Federal Government Colleges across the country and is not under FMHDSD which only oversees Home Grown School Feeding for children in Primaries 1-3 in select public schools across the country.
That the Ministry or the Minister does not even handle or disburse funds for NHGSFP. That money for funding the Programme neither passes through the Minister nor the ministry.
That the over N2.5 billion which was reportedly misappropriated by a senior civil servant (name withheld) took place in a different ministry and not the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
That the ICPC recovered N16 billion worth of assets from the said ministry which was paid into individual account for non-official purposes and not the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social development describes those casting aspersions on the Minister Sadiya Umar Farouq as malicious and unfair and calls on The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission, ICPC to publish the names of persons, federal colleges and school heads whose names have been found to be associated with the missing funds, and also freeze the accounts where the said funds were diverted.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs therefore calls on the public to disregard the false reports being linked to the ministry as it is not in any way involved in the Federal Government Colleges School Feeding.”
It will be recalled that the ICPC Chairman, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, disclosed that N2.67bn meant to feed children in federal colleges around the country during the COVID-19 lockdown when the children were not in school and the money diverted into personal accounts.
He added that ICPC also discovered over N2.5bn appropriated by a deceased senior civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture for himself and accomplices.
