By Deborah Onyofufeke, Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development yesterday said the arrest of popular Nigerian music star, Oladipo Daniel Oyebanji, popularly known as D’ Banj, by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was initiated by the ministry, having discovered financial irregularities in the scheme.
The ministry, which admitted sizeable financial irregularities in the N-Power programme, stressed that other culprits associated with the alleged fraud will also be invited soon by the ICPC as a serious investigation was ongoing.
The ministry also assured all N-Power participants that the programme will continue as the current pandemonium associated with the scheme will not get in the way.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, in a media briefing in Abuja, used the opportunity to call on members of the public with information on any irregularities noticed in the implementation of the National Social Investment Programme to come forward using any of the following channels.
The Permanent Secretary in a prepared speech read “The N-Power Programme is a very successful component of the National Social Investment Programme put in place by the Federal Government. It has continued to deliver the desired impact through the onboarding of 1.5 million unemployed Nigerian youth (mostly graduates), providing capacity building, and targeted tenured employment and structured off-boarding unto various career paths; thereby serving as a catalyst conveyor system for unemployed/under-employed Nigerian youth to successful career paths and a stimulus for the Nigerian Economy.
“The Ministry’s attention has been brought to recent publications regarding ongoing investigations concerning fraud allegations in the Programme. We wish to here state as follows;
“The Ministry has deployed a well-rounded mechanism for the selection of eligible beneficiaries from across the country and this has been in place since the inception of the program. Working with our Service Provider, Program Beneficiaries are onboarded, trained and deployed to pre-selected Places of Primary Assignment.
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“When it came to our notice that there may have been sharp practices by some personnel of the Payment Service Provider (PSP) involved in the payment processes of beneficiaries, the matter was immediately referred to ICPC for a thorough investigation. We are aware that certain persons have consequently been invited for interrogation as part of the ongoing investigations.
“In the meantime, we have carried out thorough reinforcement of our systems to eliminate all anomalies and prevent similar occurrences in the future. To this end, we are in close collaboration with ICPC to support the successful determination of the investigation.
“The public may wish to note that in a bid to ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of N-Power and other National Social Investment Programmes, namely the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme(NHGSFP), Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the Conditional Cash Transfer(CCT), the Ministry has over time involved other government MDA’s, Security Agencies and Civil Society Organisations in monitoring and compliance checks across the 36 states of the country and the FCT.
“We want to assure all N-POWER beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s continued commitment to the programme and the subsequent exit/off-boarding channels activated.
“All program beneficiaries should therefore continue to apply themselves to their utmost at their Places of Primary Assignment. All monthly stipends will continue to be paid in line with program expectations.”
