The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has told President Bola Tinubu not to spare anybody found culpable in the alleged fund diversion scandal involving the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu.
Obi made the call in a statement via his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday.
The former Anambra State Governor noted that the government should go beyond the suspension of the minister and carry out a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
He described Edu’s suspension as a welcomed development, calling on the government to give the problem of public sector corruption severe urgency.
Meanwhile, Obi expressed disappointment, saying a ministry created in good faith to attend to the plight of the suffering masses was being turned into a conduit pipe to steal from the poor, as seen in the current and previous ministers of the ministry.
Obi stated, “I like to add my voice with most Nigerians concerned about accountability in government and judicious use of public funds, to welcome the suspension of Edu, and subsequent directives for her investigation.
“The investigation must be comprehensive so that all those culpable are brought to book,” he added.
Obi cautioned against taking the issue lightly, saying the suspension of the minister should not be a window-dressing action, but rather a peg to get all those who are deserving of blame punished, just like the minister.
Obi said, “By a sad coincidence, the alleged fraudulent diversion of N585 million of public money by Edu broke almost at the same moment that the minister who held the same portfolio in the last administration is being investigated for a whopping N37 billion misappropriation.
“The ministry may have been created by the system as a conduit pipe to siphon public funds while using the poor as a face.
“Equally worrisome and disgusting is the fact that the missing funds are meant for poverty alleviation in a time of severe suffering among the people.
“Unfortunately, the ruling elites can shamelessly convert, divert, or misappropriate such huge sums meant for the poor and cannot be trusted to address the severe poverty ravaging the people.
“It is not only immoral but also insensitive for those entrusted with funds for public welfare to steal from the poor,” the Labour Party leader said.
Obi called on the Tinubu’s administration to use these cases to initiate a thorough system-wide and systematic investigation of all reported cases of fraud and corruption among high government officials in the country.
Recall that President Tinubu suspended Edu on Monday following controversies about financial transactions she authorised in her ministry.
The suspension, according to a statement by presidential spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale, had immediate effect.
The scandal included the approval of payment of hundreds of millions of naira into the private accounts of civil servants.
Edu had come under criticism from Nigerians for ordering the transfer of N585.2 million into the private bank account of a civil servant, who is the accountant in charge of grants for vulnerable Nigerians.
The Minister had issued a memo to the Accountant General of the Federation in December 2023, ordering the said amount to be paid into the civil servant’s private bank account.