Suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, consistently gave conflicting figures on the number of Nigerians the federal government intends to take out of poverty.
Edu was on Monday suspended from office by President Bola Tinubu over allegations of paying N584 million into a private account of an accountant in her ministry, Mrs. Bridget Oniyelu, as grant to vulnerable Nigerians in some states – Akwa Ibom, Lagos and Cross River.
Edu on assumption of office in August said the Federal Government plans to lift 133 million Nigerians out of poverty.
The embattled minister at a meeting with heads of agencies under the ministry.
“What is most important is that we will keep our focus on lifting 133 million Nigerians out of poverty.
“We can do it in phases, a step at a time because with determination and strong will, nothing is impossible”, she said.
According to her, the FG can only achieve this through different interventions and initiatives to reduce poverty.
On January 2, 2024, the minister in a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Rasheed Zubair, told staff of the ministry that the present administration was focused on removing 50 million vulnerable Nigerians from poverty.
“And today, the 2nd of January 2024, we are back in the office working. The reason is simple: We must deliver on our mandate.
“We have a mandate to pull 50 million Nigerians out of the city within 42 months, and all of us must commit to it,” the minister said.
Since her suspension, some civil society groups have called for a forensic audit of her claims of conditional cash transfer in Kogi state.
The suspended minister had claimed in December that one million vulnerable households in Kogi State have benefited from the Federal Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer.
She disclosed this in Kabawa, a suburb of Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
“She has to provide verifiable data on the one million households in Kogi state that benefitted from the conditional cash transfer.
“How did she and her people generate the data and who were the field officers that gave out the funds to one million households in Kogi? The EFCC must do a thorough job,” a civil society leader, who asked not to be named, said.
