Why President Tinubu Suspended Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs
President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, December 8, 2024, issued an immediate suspension of Betta Edu, just five months after she was appointed as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
In a statement signed by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Tinubu directed Edu to hand over to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, following ongoing investigation on financial misappropriation.
A leaked December 20, 2023, memo shows that Edu requested the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer the sum of N585.2 million into a private account of an official in her ministry.
The leaked memo, which contravenes section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009, is in addition to an ongoing investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged fraud of N37.1 billion in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
While Edu has denied wrongdoing and stated that “it is legal in the civil service for a staff, the project accountant, to be paid and use the same funds legally and retire same with all receipts and evidence after the project or programme is completed,” section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 states that “Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private account.”
It adds; “Any officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.”
While the suspension took immediate effect, President Tinubu instructed the “EFCC to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions involving the Ministry, as well as one or more agencies thereunder.”
