Just In : EFCC freezes over N30billion NSIPA cash traced to private accounts allegedly belonging to Halima
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen N30 billion belonging to the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), which was traced to some private accounts.
The N30 billion was said to be part of the N44 billion moved from the accounts of the NSIPA by some of the agency officials.
It was learnt that the multiple accounts to which the funds were moved belong to some NSIPA officials.
The N44 billion was said to be suspiciously moved from NSIPA’s accounts into private and corporate accounts linked to those serving as fronts. Some of the officials of the agency have been undergoing investigation, and freezing the accounts is said to be part of an ongoing probe.
The Nation Newspaper reports that EFCC interrogators grilled the suspended National Coordinator/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the agency, Halima Shehu for hours on Wednesday.
NSIPA’s immediate past Director of Finance and Accounts (DFA), Mr. Bwai Adamu Hamza, has also been arrested by the anti-graft commission. EFCC arrests social investment scheme national coordinator, Halima Shehu, after moving over N17 billion into different accounts within one week
Hamza who retired from the agency in December and Shehu were subjected to interrogation on Wednesday by a special team.
Meanwhile, a former humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development minister, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, failed to honour an EFCC invitation to appear for interrogation on Wednesday, January 3, 2024.
It was learnt that officials designated to interrogate her waited in vain for hours.
Investigations showed that the ongoing probe of NSIPA assumed a new dimension following the discovery that the total cash taken out of the agency’s vaults was N44 billion.
However, after tracking the movement of the cash, the EFCC recovered and froze the N30 billion it traced to multiple accounts. As of Tuesday, the agency had intercepted and seized N17 billion.
The commission traced and froze an additional N13 billion in some accounts, raising the cash seized to N30 billion, within 24 hours.
Detectives were said to still profiling many accounts last night to uncover the balance of N14 billion.
In December 2023, Nigerian graduates in the government’s National Social Investment Programme (N-Power) under the National Association of Npower Beneficiaries (NANB), wrote an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, calling for his immediate intervention on nonpayment of their 9-month stipends. The beneficiaries in the letter signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Adeshina Adex, lamented that they had been starved for nine months without payment of their stipends.
They said this is amid the National Assembly’s move to buy Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) costing about N160 million for each member of the House.
They said that their miseries predate President Tinubu’s presidency, starting when NSIPA was moved from the Presidency under the supervision of former Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management “for political reasons.”
The letter read, “Why Npower Beneficiaries are Angry – When as a graduate you have to think twice to buy a loaf of bread, to choose between buying data to subscribe to your phone or your lunch and the thought of not being able to provide for your basic daily needs, then you know there’s a serious problem.
“Inflation is about 35% with food, fuel, energy and transportation costs being the most affected. In a country that imports virtually everything, relying mostly on oil exports for its foreign earnings and the continued depreciation of the currency in the black Market have worsened the price levels in the 4 Months of the Tinubu’s administration.”
Credit – The Nation newspaper
