Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has demanded the resignation of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, following the N44.8 Billion graft scandal that has rocked the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
The right group explained that her resignation would enable her submit herself for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement yesterday, said it would be a two-fold norm in the event that the president suspended his representative heading the social investment coordinating office for the allegations of paying public funds worth over N34 billion as alleged by EFCC into private accounts, stressing that only for the cabinet-level minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to be approaching the public space seeking justification for also directing that public fund be paid into a private account no matter the status of that account holder.
Onwubiko told President and the EFCC to use the best global practice in the enforcement of the anti-graft laws since the law shouldn’t be made to favour individuals because they are top officials in the ruling All Progressives Congress
He said: “We are not accusing the minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation of committing any infractions, but based on the media statements that her office has issued so far, the attempt to convince Nigerians that it is lawful to keep public fund in private account is just like the polemic promoted by one erstwhile civilian governor of Kano State in the second Republic.
“It is incongruous and indeed puerile to say that on one hand, the EFCC arrested one official of the same government over allegations of payments of public funds into private accounts but on the same breath, a cabinet level minister is inundating the public space with her submission that keeping public money in private account of someone heading a certain portfolio, is appropriate.
“This sounds illogical and fallacious and by the way, if as the Minister argued that under a certain civil service rule, public funds can be kept under private accounts, why then does the financial regulations Act governing public service in Nigeria say the exact opposite?”