Tinubu suspends N-Power, cash transfer, others
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has suspended all social investment programmes administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency.
In a statement on Friday, Segun Imohiosen, the Director of Information, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said the President’s decision was because of the “ongoing investigation of alleged malfeasance in the management of the agency and its programmes.”
“All four programmes administered by NSIPA, viz., the N-Power Programme, the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, and the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, have been suspended for a period of six weeks in the first instance,” the statement read.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has also raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the programmes’ beneficiaries,” Imohoisen added.
The statement further added that the President also constituted a ministerial panel to conduct a thorough review of the agency’s operations to recommend necessary reforms of the NSIPA.
During the period of the suspension, all NSIPA-related activities, including but not limited to all distributions, events, payments, collaborations, and registrations, are now frozen.
Activities of NSIPA have been under probe since the suspension of the Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment, Halima Shehu, over the ongoing investigation into the N37,170,855,753.44 allegedly laundered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, under former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Sadiya Umar-Farouq.
Her successor, Betta Edu, was also suspended by the President and interrogated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for directing that N585 million should be transferred to a private account owned by one Oniyelu Bridget, who the ministry claimed currently serves as the Project Accountant, Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
The president has also ordered a comprehensive inquiry into the scandal that has rocked the ministry.
