The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has urged the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, to resign her post and submit herself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for questioning.
In a statement on Saturday, the human rights association also advised President Bola Tinubu to sack the minister over allegations of financial misappropriation.
HURIWA made this call following the federal government’s ongoing N44.8 billion fraud investigation in NSIPA as it involved the public fund she allegedly deposited in a private individual’s bank account.
The group emphasized on the potency of the public sector financial regulations of 2009, which prohibits the payment of public funds to the account of a private individual.
HURIWA noted that it would be a “twofold norm” in the event that the 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.
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It urged the Tinubu 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.
“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,” HURIWA said.
It added that “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?”
