N2.7b school feeding fund: Sadiq Umar dares ICPC to name names

*As she exonerates ministry from fraud

THE Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has dissociated itself from reports that N2.67bn meant for the feeding of schoolchildren during the lockdown was diverted to private accounts.

Naija Times had reported how the ICPC disclosed on Monday that N2.67 billion paid to some federal colleges for school feeding during the Covid-19 lockdown ended up in private bank accounts.

But in a statement issued on Monday night by the Special Assistant on Media to the ministry’s minister, Nneka Anibeze, the ministry stated that the statement by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on the said funds was twisted and misinterpreted.

“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,” it said in the statement.

It stated that the school feeding under scrutiny was the feeding of students in Federal Government colleges across the country.

“It is not under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs which only oversees Home Grown School Feeding for children in Primaries one to three in select public schools across the country,” the ministry argued.

It added, “The ministry or the minister does not even handle or disburse funds for Home Grown School Feeding. The money for funding the programme neither passes through the minister nor the ministry.”

 It explained that the over N2.5bn which was reportedly misappropriated by a senior civil servant took place in a different ministry and not the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

Recall that the minister said in August that the federal government spent over N500 million to feed pupils during the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The minister also said other cases of fraud mentioned by the ICPC have nothing to do with her ministry.

“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 asked the ICPC to publish the names of persons complicit in the school feeding fraud and to freeze the accounts where the missing funds were found.

“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,” she said.

 “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 any way involved in the Federal Government Colleges School Feeding,” the statement added.