By Nwafor Sunday
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has quashed allegation that her ministry was part of N2.67bn school feeding fund, uncovered by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.
Reacting in a statement signed by her special assistant on media and publicity, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, Farouq argued that the Federal Government Colleges school feeding is different from the Home Grown School Feeding which is one of its Social Investment Programmes.
She seized the opportunity to demand the publication of names, federal colleges and school heads whose names have been found to be associated with the missing funds and also freeze the accounts where the said funds were diverted.
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Her words: “The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development hereby informs the public that the Federal Government Colleges school feeding in question is different from the Home Grown School Feeding which is one of its Social Investment Programmes.
“That the School Feeding under scrutiny is feeding of students in Federal Government Colleges across the country and is not under the Federal ministry of Humanitarian Affairs which only oversees Home Grown School Feeding for children in Primaries 1-3 in select public schools across the country.
“That the over N2.5 billion which was reportedly misappropriated by a senior civil servant (name withheld) took place in a different ministry and not the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
“The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development calls on The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC to publish the names of persons, federal colleges and school heads whose names have been found to be associated with the missing funds and also freeze the accounts where the said funds were diverted.
“The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs therefore calls on the general public to disregard the false reports being linked to the ministry as it is not in any way involved in the Federal Government Colleges School Feeding.”
