Group calls for suspension of PermSec, Finance Director, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs

Sat, Jan 13, 2024
By editor
2 MIN READ

Politics

A leading Pro-Democracy group, Kwara Must Change, has called for the suspension of the Permanent Secretary and Director of Finance at the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

The group said that both officials needed to be suspended along with the minister for proper investigation to be conducted in the ministry.

While reacting to the suspension of Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu by President Bola Tinubu over allegations of corruption on its popular radio programme, “Eto Wa” on Sobi FM on Friday, a guest on the programme, Abdullateef Babafila, said that the suspension of the minister without suspending the permanent secretary, who is the accounting officer of the ministry and the director of finance, who prepared the document presented to Betta Edu would amount to beating around the bush.

According to Babafila, the minister is the last on the order of culpability, because the ministry has bureaucrats, who are trained professionals to handle administrative processes in the ministry and they are responsible for drafting the document presented to the minister.

“If there’s any wrong doing, the minister alone cannot be held accountable alone because she couldn’t have done the infraction alone, all those involved in the process must be held accountable, especially the permanent secretary and the director of finance.

Babafila also noted that, reports show that this is not the first time payments are being made into private accounts in the ministry and this was happening even before Betta Edu became minister.

“This shows that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, whose 2 ministers are now under criminal investigation,” Babafila said.

The other participants at the programme were former Kwara State commissioner for Business, Innovation and Technology, Ibrahim Akaje, Moyosore Yusuf and Kamaldeen Babasiga.

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-January 13, 2023 @ 16:45 GMT|

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