The suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, was on Monday, January 8, 2024, denied access to see President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Edu, who was suspended by Tinubu on Monday over N585 million fraud, arrived at the State House shortly after her suspension was announced.
The suspended minister had passed all security checks but was blocked from entering the president’s office.
She was thereafter escorted out of the Presidential Villa by protocol officials while her access tag was withdrawn by the president’s security team.
President Tinubu had earlier suspended Edu from office with immediate effect over the payment of N585 million into a private account by the ministry.
READ ALSO: Tinubu suspends minister over N585m fraud, orders EFCC probe
This followed a memo that revealed that the suspended minister asked the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Oluwatoyin Madein, to pay N585 million to a private account belonging to one Oniyelu Bridget Mojisola.
She also approved funds for flight tickets and airport taxis for the ministry’s officials to Kogi State, which has no airport.
However, presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who announced the minister’s suspension in a statement on Monday, said the president has directed the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, to conduct “a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions involving the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, as well as one or more agencies thereunder”.
Tinubu also directed the suspended minister to hand over to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry and “fully cooperate with the investigating authorities as they conduct their investigation”.
“Furthermore, the President has tasked a panel that is headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to, among other functions, conduct a comprehensive diagnostic on the financial architecture and framework of the social investment programmes with a view to conclusively reforming the relevant institutions and programmes in a determined bid to eliminate all institutional frailties for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households and win back lost public confidence in the initiative,” Ngelale added.
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