THE Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has distanced her ministry from the N2.67bn school feeding funds, which the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission said it uncovered in private accounts.
The minister claimed that the Federal Government Colleges School Feeding programme was different from the Home Grown School Feeding, which is one of the Social Investment Programmes of her ministry.
Her reactions to the ICPC’s disclosure of school feeding funds traced to personal accounts were stated in a statement signed by her Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Nneka Ikem Anibeze.
The minister, however, urged the ICPC to publish the names of persons, Federal Government colleges and school heads who had been found to be involved in the missing funds scandal.
She also advised that the accounts housing such funds should be frozen.
Farouq said, “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.”
She also dissociated her ministry from the over N2.5 billion, which was reportedly misappropriated by a senior civil servant (name withheld), saying the event occurred in a different ministry and not the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
She stated, “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 any way involved in the Federal Government Colleges School Feeding.”
I have never been impressed with performance of this Minister