EFCC INTERROGATES BETTA EDU OVER ‘N585M DISBURSEMENT FRAUD’
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On Tuesday, anti-graft investigators have started investigating suspended minister, Betta Edu over alleged N585m disbursement fraud.
Edu arrived at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, about 11 a.m., a top source in the commission revealed.
The concerned minister arrived with her attorney and assistants and is presently interacting with EFCC agents.
The suspended minister showed up at the EFCC office just a day after President Bola Tinubu had suspended her.
After being involved in a N585 million disbursement fraud involving the ministry of humanitarian affairs, Edu came under heavy fire from activists and rights groups.
The 37-year-old’s situation was made worse when Oluwatoyin Madein, the Accountant General of the Federation, acknowledged that, despite receiving a request for specific payments from the humanitarian ministry, her office did not follow through on it.
The former national women’s head of the President’s Party was the first person to be removed from the 48-member cabinet that was formed in August of last year when he used his authority to suspend the 37-year-old on Monday with immediate effect.
The President also ordered EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, “to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions” involving the ministry and “one or more agencies thereunder.”
Edu, 37, was the youngest member of the president’s cabinet prior to her suspension and was a political rising star who held state and federal positions at an early age.
She served as the National Women Leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Cross River State Commissioner for Health before being appointed as a minister last August. During the electoral process that resulted in the election of the former Lagos governor as president, Edu played a significant role in Tinubu’s campaign as the APC’s presidential candidate at the time.
Approximately three months after Tinubu took the oath of office as president, Edu secured her position as a minister. But her time as a minister was brief, ending after just six months, making it possibly the shortest one for a minister in a long time.
In between, Sadiya Farouq, Edu’s predecessor, was questioned by the EFCC on Monday over an alleged N37.1 billion in money laundering that occurred while she was a minister. After a lengthy 12-hour interview, she was given permission to leave and is scheduled to return on Tuesday to provide additional details on several matters that the Commission brought to light during its preliminary investigations.
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