An unnamed Presidential Aide, piled pressures on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to clear former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Beta Edu, so she can be represented as a Ministerial nominee in the planned cabinet shakeup......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
The former minister was suspended in January 2024 over the alleged diversion of more than N585 million ($640,000; £500,000) of public money into a personal bank account.
Edu was also an accomplice in allegedly siphoning the over N3bn from the NSIPA account using various fraudulent schemes such as inflating the number of beneficiaries, paying ghost workers, awarding contracts to fake companies and diverting funds to personal accounts.
Also, a leaked memo dated December 20, 2023, exposed another multimillion-naira scandal involving Dr Edu. She allegedly approved funds for flight tickets and airport taxis for her advanced team to travel for an event in Kogi; a state with no airport.
However, a Presidential Aide who is bent on returning Edu into the Bola Tinubu’s cabinet, allegedly piled pressures on the EFCC Chairman to give Edu who had made refunds to the anti-graft agency, a clean bill of health.
The EFCC clean bill is what has informed the pressure on President Tinubu to return Edu as Minister as he prepares to announce a change of cabinet. Although insiders said the President has made his final decisions not to return Edu but mounting pressures from close aides and even the First Lady are still ongoing.
The EFCC has been silent on the report on the investigations of Edu perhaps fearing a backlash from the public who were aware of the documentary evidence detailing huge corruption under the former Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Minister.
Edu has been boasting around political circles that she would be back to her office. She has not stopped using the paraphernalia of Government and sometimes signing off seasonal greetings as a Minister.