NEWS
N585m scandal: Suspend Perm Sec Enitan, directors of humanitarian ministry – Adeyanju tells Tinubu
Deji Adeyanju, an Abuja-based rights activist and constitutional lawyer, has urged President Bola Tinubu to suspend the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan.
He said Enitan and all directors in the ministry should be sacked to pave the way for a holistic investigation.
Tinubu had handed over the ministry to Enitan following the suspension of the Minister in charge, Betta Edu, over her involvement in financial misappropriation.
Documents had indicted Edu of approving the payment of N585 million in social intervention funds into the private account of a civil servant.
Following the disclosure, Tinubu suspended Edu while ordering the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate the scandal thoroughly.
However, Adeyanju faulted Tinubu’s decision to hand over the ministry to Enitan because he might be aware of the corrupt practices carried out in the ministry.
The statement reads: “While politicians come and go, the permanent secretary is always there until he or she resigns.
“It is, therefore, highly unlikely that the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs was unaware of the corrupt practices that was going on in that ministry. The permanent secretary ranks only next to the Minister. How were these monies moved to private accounts without the knowledge of Mr. Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan, the permanent secretary?
“Whose duty was it to bring the minister abreast with the various civil service rules aimed at prohibiting corrupt practices? Can the permanent secretary truly deny knowledge of the sleaze that went down in that ministry or is it a case of several person dipping their hands into the public purse but only the person who was caught is called the thief?
“It is in the light of the foregoing that the decision by Mr. President to hand over the running of the ministry to the permanent secretary is, in my opinion, ill-advised. For a holistic investigation to be carried out in that ministry, as directed by Mr. President, the permanent secretary and all the directors must equally be suspended to determine their culpability if any, in what has become a national embarrassment.
“The president is, therefore, urged to hand over the affairs of the ministry to any other permanent secretary in any other ministry, but not the present permanent secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.”
The Chairman of Abia State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the recovery of Government Property and Funds, Justice Florence Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) has issued a Bench Warrant on Anthony Agbazuere and Don Ubani, who served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, respectively, to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
This is even as Don Ubani has said that he never received any invitation from the panel.
The Bench Warrant on Agbazuere according to Justice Duruoha-Igwe was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel to give evidence in respect to a Toyota Hilux Land Cruiser alleged to be in his possession since he left office.
Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) who adjourned the matter to January 24, 2024, directed that Agbazuere should be arrested and produced for further cross examination.
The Panel said that the Bench warrant on the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani, was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel and his inability to file a response to a notice served him on 30th of November, 2023.
Speaking before adjourning the matter to 24th of this month, the Chairman Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) directed that Ubani should be arrested and produced on January 24, 2024, to defend himself.
But reacting to the development, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani said he was shocked to read that a Bench Warrant had been issued on him, saying that he was never invited by the Panel.
“I am shocked to read that a Bench Warrant could be issued on me without ever being invited to a Panel either by writing or even through a telephone call,” said Ubani who also described the arrest order as ‘false propaganda and political witch-hunt’.
But the former Deputy Chief of Staff also promised to appear before the Panel of Enquiry if he received an invitation.
The National Judicial Council, NJC, has clarified that no date has yet been fixed for the swearing-in of the newly appointed eleven Justices of the Supreme Court.
The Council said that the purported news by an Abuja based media organization suggesting Monday January 16 for the inauguration of the Justices did not emanate from it.
A statement by the NJC’s Director of Information, Barrister Soji Oye clarified that neither the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, who is the NJC Chairman, nor the Council itself authored or endorsed the purported date.
While asking members of the public to disregard the news, the NJC said that the date for the swearing-in of the Justices would be made public at the appropriate time.
NJC’s statement read in part, “The attention of the National Judicial Council has been drawn to a trending story purportedly informing the public that the newly appointed 11 Supreme Court Justices would be sworn in on Monday 16 January 2023.
“The Council by this medium expressly denies the news as it did not emanate from the Council or the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.
“The date for the swearing-in of the Justices will be made public at the appropriate time. Members of the public should please disregard the trending news.”
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Kaduna State, has demanded a probe of alleged extra-judicial killing of their members.
WORLD WIDE GIST recalls that an online report alleged that 11 decomposing corpses of Fulani natives, from Tulde Fulbe, Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, were on Monday discovered in a forest.
They were alleged to have been killed by the Nigerian Army.
But the Headquarters, 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, in a statement on Thursday night, by Lt. Col Musa Yahaya, Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, denied involvement of the Army in the said killing.
However, in a statement by MACBAN Kaduna chairman, Haruna Usman Tugga, he insisted that the organisation as an umbrella body of Fulbe in Nigeria received with serious concern the information.
The statement condemned what they described as “extra-judicial killing of law-abiding Fulbe youths of Tilde Fulbe community and other areas of Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of the state by military personnel at Kachia, headquarters of Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.”
He said they called an emergency executive meeting of the association to get to the root of the matter and find out the remote causes, perpetrators and names of the victims.
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