Humanitarian Affairs Ministry Plans To Feed Ghost Pupils – HURIWA Says
…Urges National Assembly; Nigerians to stop the fraud
BY GRACE ANYANWU, ABUJA – Civil Rights Advocacy group on the aegis of Humn Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs of planning to feed ghost pupils as it planned to proceed with the School Feeding Programme even as schools have been on an emergency vacation due to COVID-19 Lockdown for about nearly two Months.
HURIWA therefore called on the President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila to halt the sinister attempts to misapply public funds under the guise of feeding children when it is a universal truism that the Nigerian Pupils are not in Schools.
It said that millions of the school children may have been relocated from their original residences as a result of the circumstances and inevitable movements thrown up by the health emergency that was occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria.
A statement by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, asked to know where the ministry wants to get the pupils to feed whilst the lockdown is still in place.
He further asked; “Are they going to bring up displaced almajiris as the bonafide pupils or will they as usual manufacture ghosts as pupils? These School children have all gone to their homes and millions of these kids may have been relocated to towns other than where they reside with their parents or guardians.
“Why is this government so incorrigible and resistant to the truth? Why can’t the government do first things first but would press on with a muddled up plot to divert public funds under the guise of feeding school children and by the way school children who are not in schools are not school children
“So, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences commission and the EFCC if they are patriotic enough should question the Federal Minister of Humanitarian Affairs for pretending to feed school children when there is no school in session and assuming without conceding that there are children to be arranged and fed, those are not school children because school children are found in schools and not from all corners of the streets when the schools are understandably on vacation.”
HURIWA noted that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, has said that the school feeding programme will be implemented despite the closure of schools nationwide even against the factual background that Schools across Nigeria have been closed for about seven weeks to check the spread of COVID-19.
HURIWA further said that even the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiq Farouq reportedly admitted before an investigative session organized by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila that she does not have a fuller understanding of the modalities for proceeding with the implementation of the School Feeding Programme when schools across the country have since closed down due to the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria.
HURIWA said; “We are completely shocked that this same person who only few weeks back admitted that she was unaware of how to proceed with the School Feeding Programme, surprisingly told the bewildered nation yesterday that the School Feeding programme that is ravaged by administrative and operational corruption of a monumental proportions would go on today.”
HURIWA said that there are no valid school children to be fed now except the systematic and well-choreographed plots to steal public fund by officials of government even going by the fact that the Minister reportedly admitted that the system is not transparent enough during her meeting with the national parliament.
“This must be stopped,” HURIWA insisted.
