Nigerians call on president Tinubu to sack minister, Betta Edu over N585m scandal

Nigerian-American professor and prominent writer, Farooq Kperogi, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sack the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, amid allegations of a corruption scandal involving N585,198,500.00 million.

Recall that Edu is under fire for approving the payment of N585,198 million into a private account of Bridget Mojisola Oniyelu.

But reacting to the development, Kperogi, in an essay he shared Saturday through X handle, said if Tinubu did not fire Edu immediately, the President would have lost the morals to fight corruption.

“Unfortunately, some of the crimes Muhammadu Buhari’s people committed in his eight-year reign are reappearing now. It has now come to light, for example, that Betta Chimaobim Edu, the successor to Sadiya Umar Farouq, has started the same pattern of theft by her predecessor.

“In a leaked December 20, 2023, memo to the Accountant-General of the Federation, Edu instructed that money designated for “vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun and Lagos,” which amounted to more than N500 million, should be paid into the private UBA account of one Bridget Mojisola Oniyelu in violation of Nigeria’s public sector financial regulation law.

“The regulation says public money should not, under any circumstance, be paid into private bank accounts.

“Any officer who pays public money into a private bank account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intentions,” section 713 of the act says.

“This is a momentous moment for Tinubu. If he does not fire Edu forthwith and bring her to justice, he has already lost the moral high ground to try Muhammadu Buhari’s corrupt honchos,” he said.