An Abuja-based civil rights organisation, Empowerment for Unemployed Youths Initiative, has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for acting decisively to address the fraud and monumental corruption in the Ministry of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation.
This followed the suspension of the minister, Dr. Betta Edu and Hajia Halima Shehu, the national coordinator, Social Investment Programme Agency for their involvement in the misappropriation of funds and other unwholesome transactions amounting to billions of naira.
In a letter addressed to the president and commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Ahmed Tinubu by the national coordinator, Comrade Danesi Momoh and Igwe Ude-Umanta, director, research and programmes; the group praised Mr. President for his courage and forthrightness but asked him to go a step further and sanction the permanent secretary of the ministry too.
They said, “Mr. President, we are proud of your courageous and pragmatic approach to leadership. Your vision and mission for the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation is well understood. It is to uplift the downtrodden citizens, the poorest of the poor by providing them with succour.
Unfortunately, your intention is sabotaged by the people you graciously entrusted with that very important responsibility.
“While we welcome your swift action in suspending the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu and the coordinator of National Social Investment Programme Agency, Hajia Halima Shehu, we also call on you to suspend and subject the permanent secretary, Mr. Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan to a thorough probe.
“It is our reasoned contention that it is not possible for the permanent secretary to be uninvolved or unaware of the sleaze that happened in a ministry where he is the chief accounting officer and the highest ranking civil servant. He has either refused to offer professional advice, or he is a conspirator, or a lukewarm witness to the crime, or an unaware bystander…
“Whichever of these roles is played by the permanent secretary, he is overtly or covertly involved. He, therefore, cannot be absolved without a deliberate scrutiny to his less than impressive roles. In fact, the idea of handing the ministry to his caretaker-ship is absurd and unacceptable because nothing so far suggests that he is free from the corruption allegations in the ministry”.
The group finally urged Nigerians to be vigilant and report cases of corruption and abuse of office to the appropriate authorities, maintaining that, “Nigeria now has a president who is committed to fighting corruption and vigorously pursuing the renewed hope agenda. We must therefore use this opportunity to purge our country of corrupt and inefficient leaders who are only after looting our commonwealth”.
