The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has denied reports that the N2.67bn school feeding money was found in private accounts.
The Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye in series of tweets via it’s official Twitter account had said the agency uncovered N2.67bn school feeding programme fund paid into private accounts.
According to Owasanoye “We discovered payment of N2.67bn during lockdown when the children were not in school, and some money ended up in personal accounts.”
He further revealed that the agency has commenced investigations into these findings.
Reacting, Farouq in a statement released by her special assistant on media and publicity, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, said the school feeding in question is different from the homegrown school feeding program which is one of the humanitarian ministry’s social investment programs (SIP).
She insisted that the other cases of fraud mentioned by the ICPC have nothing to do with her ministry.
The minister also urged the general 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.
”The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development hereby inform 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.
“The School Feeding under scrutiny is feeding of students in Federal Government Colleges across the country and is not under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs which only oversees Home Grown School Feeding for children in Primaries 1-3 in select public schools across the country.
“The 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.
“The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development calls on The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences 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 also calls on the general 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,” the statement said.
