My Ministry Is Not Linked To It – Sadiya Umar Farouq Makes Clarification On N2.67bn School Feeding Fund Found In Private Accounts

By Edna Wande On Sep 30, 2020

Minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has made a clarification on N2.67bn school feeding money which was reportedly found in private accounts.

The school feeding programme is under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

It would be recalled that MDB reported that Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye disclosed that the money diverted into personal accounts was paid when children were not in school.

Prof. Owasanoye revealed that N2.5 billion appropriated by a senior civil servant (now deceased) in the Ministry of Agric for himself and cronies, was also discovered.

Sadiya Farouq has now reacted to this in a statement released by her special assistant on media and publicity, Nneka Ikem Anibeze.

She stated that the school feeding in question is different from the home grown school feeding programme, which is one of the humanitarian ministry’s social investment programmes (SIP).

The Minister further insisted that the other cases of fraud mentioned by the ICPC have nothing to do with her ministry.

She called on the general public to disregard the false reports being linked to the ministry as it is not in anyway involved in the Federal Government Colleges School Feeding.

The statement reads;

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 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.

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.

The Minister expressed;

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 therefore calls on the general public to disregard the false reports being linked to the ministry as it is not in anyway involved in the Federal Government Colleges School Feeding.