South West Beneficiaries Allege Corruption In Cash Transfer Scheme

Indications have emerged that the transformational cash transfer of the federal government to the beneficiaries in the South West is highly bedevilled by large-scale stealing, thereby depriving many Nigerians in need of urgent economic relief that the scheme is meant for.

LEADERSHIP checks showed that corrupt practices have characterised the fresh disbursement of money, which the federal government is said to disburse to citizens for short-term palliative measures to alleviate poverty.

Some beneficiaries and competent sources who spoke with LEADERSHIP in separate interviews alleged they were compelled to part with an amount when their bank accounts were credited.

A source involved in the scheme to LEADERSHIP said, “Mr Anthony Haastrup Adegboyega formed Transformational 8/10/11/12 & 13/14 Group 407 members with 639 members. His phone number is 07035198773. He initially gave us his account number in WEMA bank to be refunded N30,000 back to him. Now he has sent a message to us to stop payment to his WEMA Bank account, that we should now be paying to ‘ Palm Pay Account: 7035198773 Haastrup Adegboyega Anthony, Opay Account:7035198773 Haastrup Adegboyega Anthony.  To me, this man is just collecting and defrauding the government.

Observers say the programme, another federal government scheme in addition to the existing conditional cash transfer done in conjunction with state governments, aims to provide monthly cash transfers of N50,000 to beneficiary households to alleviate poverty.

Some beneficiaries of the programme who spoke with LEADERSHIP on condition of anonymity provided details and payment slips to Mr. Anthony Haastrup Adegboyega, saying that if they have to continue sending N30,000 back to Mr. Adegboyega from the N50,000 they get, the objective of the cash transfer to alleviate their suffering will not only be defeated, but it will also go to show that taxpayers’ funds are responsibly disbursed in the country.

Mr Adegboyega said that anytime we receive an alert of N50,000, we should transfer N30,000 to the account number he placed on the WhatsApp group number he created, and we have been paying the money into the account. We have decided to cry out so that the government will know where the N50,000 they claim they are paying poor and vulnerable people is going. How can somebody collect the names of 603 people, collect N50,000 from the government, and come through the back door to collect 30,000 from us again?’’

When LEADERSHIP called Mr Adegboyega at 07035198773, he said,’’ Yes, I am Mr Adegboyega Haastrup. Please give me five minutes. I am in a traffic jam. I will get back to you.’’

As of the time of filing this report, calls to his phone number after five hours were rejected. He also didn’t respond to text messages sent to him.