A former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has accused Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu of having a hand in the emergence of Betta Edu as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
Edu has come under fire after a memo from her to the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein with which she ordered the transfer of N585.189 million into one Bridget Oniyelu’s private account leaked.
In deference to public pressure, President Tinubu suspended the 37-year-old from office and subsequently she is facing investigation at the hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
To Atiku via a statement his Special Assistant, Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, released, Edu had no business being a minister of federal Republic of Nigeria allegedly on experience grounds.
The former VP blamed Gbajabiamila for her emergence saying the former Speaker peddled influence to get her cleared by the Senate.
The statement also contains vitrol which the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate hurled at the ruling All Progressives Congress.
It reads in part, “While Tinubu deserves commendation for suspending Edu, we believe this is a belated move. Firstly, he had no business appointing her as a minister of such a sensitive ministry in the first place. Tinubu put politics ahead of competence, hence this scandal.
“What experience did Betta have in the development sector? How was Imaan Ibrahim, with her wealth of experience, overlooked? How did the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, stand as Betta Edu’s referee during her clearance at the Senate?
“Betta Edu should not be the fall guy. Others who have remotely and wickedly benefitted from money that was meant for poor Nigerians ought to be fished out, probed, and prosecuted too. It is demonic and tendentiously wicked to steal in the name of the poor.
“There is a need for the government to reform the humanitarian affairs ministry and other interventionist programmes that had become an ATM and POS for those in power.
“He noted that the fact that the previous Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, was also being probed for N37bn fraud was evidence that immediate and urgent actions need to be taken to reform the ministry.
“Even during the COVID-19 lockdown, Umar-Farouq continued to implement the school feeding programme. She ridiculously claimed that the food would be delivered to the students at home since schools were shut.
“Today, Betta Edu claims that over three million households got N20,000 each during the Yuletide. Sadly, there is no evidence of millions of Nigerians getting such money. This shows that money has just been going into private pockets.
“The scandal that we are contending with is not about Betta Edu, nor about Halima Shehu, or any other rogue element for that matter. It is about a problem of systemic corruption through which the APC continues to bleed the treasury, ironically, asphyxiating the poor and vulnerable segment of the country, all in the name of caring for them.
“The APC has weaponized poverty and hunger to control the minds of the vulnerable masses, and it is even worse that they have devised a method to use poverty as an instrument of official corruption.”
