PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has sworn in the seven ministerial nominees forwarded on Wednesday, October 23 after after dismissing five ministers from his cabinet.
Among the five dismissed, three were women, reducing the number of female ministers in his cabinet to five. These three were replaced by three other female others—Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu, Jumoke Oduwole, and Suwaiba Ahmad.
However, questions had lingered over the status of Betta Edu, whose name did not appear among the dismissed ministers, despite her suspension earlier in January.
Betta Edu was the former minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development ministry until her suspension in January and her official sack recently.
One of the nominees, Nentawe Yilwatda was designated for Edu’s former position, implying her removal from the cabinet and signalling that the government likely found her culpable in the allegations against her.
Events leading to Edu’s suspension
Edu’s troubles began in January when she was suspended over an alleged transfer of N585 million to a private account. She claimed that the payment, intended as grants for vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun, and Lagos States, had received approval from the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Oluwatoyin Madein.
However, Madein refuted Edu’s claims, stating that her office neither approved nor processed the payment, as bulk payments to individual accounts were against standard procedures.
Edu argued that the recipient, Oniyelu Bridget Mojisola, was a legitimate project accountant within the ministry. However, this assertion contradicted Nigeria’s Public Sector Financial Regulation Act of 2009, which governs public fund disbursements.
This discrepancy prompted President Tinubu to authorise an investigation into Edu’s conduct, leading to her suspension on January 8, 2024.
The following day, Edu was questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), marking her as one of the high-profile individuals currently under investigation, although the government has not yet released further updates on her case.
Attempt to whitewash Edu
In February, The FactCheckHub uncovered an attempt by social media users to launder the image of the former minister in what looked like a coordinated campaign.
The report identified over fifty X accounts working to portray the suspended minister in a positive light and minimise the severity of her alleged offenses despite the ongoing investigation.
These accounts consistently refer to her as “Dr Betta Edu,” seemingly aiming to make her name trend and steer social media discussions in her favour. Each account meticulously maintained the same format for her title and name, avoiding hashtags to evade detection.
The uniformity in their posts, along with synchronised content and posting times, points to a coordinated effort to sway public perception regarding the case.
Recovered funds from the ministry
Prior to Edu’s suspension, the national coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu was also arrested and detained by the EFCC over the probe of N37.1 billion allegedly laundered in the ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development under the former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouk.
Umar-Farouk was also invited by the anti-graft commission over these allegations which she granted which was interestingly the same time Edu was being investigated.
In April, EFCC announced it had recovered N32.7 billion and $445,000 from the ministry after indicting Edu, along with her predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, and the National Social Insurance Programmes Agency coordinator, Halima Shehu, in a public fund’s misappropriation case,
The commission further disclosed that the investigation uncovered additional fraudulent activities connected to COVID-19 relief funds, a World Bank loan, and recovered Abacha loot, which were allocated by the Federal Government to support the ministry’s poverty alleviation initiatives.
Fatimah Quadri is a Journalist and a Fact-checker at The ICIR. She has written news articles, fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy in an effort to combat information disorder.
She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org