The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiyya Umar Farouq, has denied diverting funds meant for the various government intervention programs to Bauchi State for political purposes.
The minister’s husband, former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal Saddique Abubakar, (rtd), is the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Bauchi State.
The embattled Minister also denied abandoning her office and relocating to Bauchi to push the political interest of her husband who is contesting the 2023 governorship of Bauchi state.
Sadiyya Umar Farouk was reacting to allegations levelled against her by a group, ‘APC Initiative for Good Governance’ that the Minister had diverted Social Investment Programmes funds meant for the entire country to Bauchi State.
According to an issued statement made available to newsmen in Bauchi on Friday, the Minister, who reacted through her Media aide, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, dismissed all the allegations.
She stated that the Minister did not divert public funds meant for the country to Bauchi State, saying: “At no time did Umar Farouq divert Social Investment Programme funds meant for the 36 States and the FCT to Bauchi; nor did she ever abandon the responsibilities in her office to relocate to Bauchi”.
The statement further read in part: “On the contrary, she has been working tirelessly and assiduously to ensure that no vulnerable Nigerian is left to go hungry, and to also lift them higher than where she met them. Since the creation of the Ministry in August 2019, at least 20 million Nigerians have so far been empowered through various programmes and initiatives of the Ministry”.
“The Hon. Minister wishes to categorically state herewith that she will not be deterred by belly-aching detractors who will stop at nothing to derail the lofty Social Investment Programmes of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, whose declared agenda is to lift 100 million vulnerable Nigerians out of poverty by 2030. She said that the Ministry, under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, fed a total of 9.9 million children from Primary 1 to 3 in 53,000 public schools nationwide one hot nutritious meal every school day.
“Bauchi State is the 4th highest in terms of benefitting the number of primary schools behind Kano, Benue and Kaduna States. In addition, Kano State has the highest number of children being fed, followed by Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, and Benue before Bauchi”.
It further noted that the minister is a native of Zamfara State and married to a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal Abubakar Saddique, stressing that, “By virtue of her marriage to an indigene of Bauchi State, the full rights of any Bauchi woman have been bestowed on her. Therefore, the unregistered and unknown APC Initiative for Good Governance group cannot stop her from reaping, or sowing, the seeds of development in her husband’s State to the extent of its rightful share from the Ministry she heads; neither can their mischievous falsehood prevent her from supporting the political interest of her husband”, the media aide emphasised.
Recall that the group had warned the Minister to steer clear of Bauchi politics and face her responsibilities as a Minister of the Federal Republic.
