By Damola Emmanuel
There seems to be no respite for the embattled Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ms. Betta Edu, over the allegations of money laundering swarming around her.
On Sunday, the country’s major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, pointedly asked President Bola Tinubu to sack the Minister with immediate effect.
Edu has been under fire since last week after a memo surfaced indicating that she directed the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein, to transfer a staggering sum of N585 million to a private account owned by one Oniyelu Bridget.
The ministry claimed selfsame Oniyelu Bridget currently serves as the Project Accountant, Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
Betta Edu’s instructions for the payment were contained in a leaked memo dated December 20, 2023.
On Sunday, the PDP, through a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Debo Ologunagba, described the scandal coming so early in the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as tragic and heartbreaking.
The main opposition party maintained that this was even so because a minister entrusted with public funds to support millions of poor Nigerians could turn around to allegedly divert hundreds of millions of naira meant to provide some succor for the poor.
Said the PDP scribe: “The continuing stay of Betta Edu as Minister is therefore provocative and amounts to stealing from a people and daring them to do their worst. It further confirms our Party’s position that the Tinubu-led APC government is a cesspit of corruption.”
The PDP expressed shock and dismay that Edu and the suspended National Coordinator of NSIPA, Halima Shehu, allegedly engaged in mega looting, allegedly diverting billions of Naira, while Nigerians whom the funds were meant for were left to wallow in abject deprivation and suffer excruciating hardship.
“Equally disheartening,” the statement continues, “is the report of how Betta Edu allegedly directed the transfer of the N585.2 million NSIPA money into the private account of one of her fronts in clear violation of Chapter 7, Section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations, 2009 which expressly prohibits the payment of public money into a private account.
“For emphasis, Section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations, 2009 provides that Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private bank account. An officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with a fraudulent intention.
“The apparent fraudulent intention by Betta Edu in diverting public funds into a private account; an action which was appropriately declared illegal by the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, is consistent with APC’s character and proclivity for plundering of public resources.
“The lack of remorse by the Minister especially in her lame attempt to justify the illegal diversion of funds meant for poor Nigerians is also consistent with the insensitivity, heartlessness, impunity, and criminal audacity inherent in the APC administration.”
The opposition party charged “President Tinubu to demonstrate commitment to the fight against corruption by immediately sacking Betta Edu, hand her over for investigation, prosecution and take steps to recover the stolen N44 billion and channel the fund recovered towards the well-being of Nigerians.”