N585.18m: Fish out Betta Edu, Sadiya Farouq’s alleged accomplices – CISLAC tells FG

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has demanded that the Federal Government and anti-graft agencies to fish out the alleged accomplices of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, and her predecessor, Sadiya Farouq.

CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Rafsanjani, made this call in an interview on Sunday Politics, a program on Channels Television.

 Rafsanjani said, “The fraud allegedly perpetrated by both the previous minister, Sadiya, and the current one definitely worked with some people; where are those people? If we want to get to the root of this, we must get them investigated.”

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He said it was pathetic that a ministry that should be sympathetic to the citizens was caught in the web of alleged fund diversions.

He called on President Bola Tinubu to carry out sweeping reforms within ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), stressing that alleged diversions of funds weren’t restricted to the humanitarian ministry.

The rights activist lauded the Federal Government for probing the minister and her predecessor, saying the new administration must take the probes seriously because the country was broke and needed money.

“We will not let this matter die; this is one of the many of it,” Rafsanjani said.

He called on the government to have the political will to pursue both probes till the end and extend such investigations to other MDAs.

It could be recalled that Edu’s alleged involvement in the approval of N585,198,500.00 to be disbursed into a personal account has been met with controversy.

Although the minister said some people planned to tarnish her image, the president subsequently ordered the probe into Edu’s ministry.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is presently probing Edu’s predecessor, Farouq, over the alleged laundering of N37.1 billion during her tenure as a minister under the administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.