Sadiya Umar-Farouk, the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, is expected to be interrogated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged N37.1 billion fraud.
A top EFCC source confirmed this to Vanguard.
From August 2019 to May 29, 2023, Umar-Farouk served as a minister under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Following an investigation into her activities as a minister, the anti-graft agency invited the former minister last week.
She was being investigated for allegedly laundering N37.1 billion through a contractor, James Okwete, while she was in charge.
A week later, the former minister was summoned by interrogators to the EFCC headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, by 10:00 a.m.
“However, she has yet to appear at the EFCC headquarters,” said an anonymous source.
According to the source, other officials who worked with her have also been invited to provide insight into how the ministry’s affairs were handled over the last four years.
Remember that the planned interrogation of the former minister came after President Bola Tinubu immediately suspended Halima Shehu as the chief executive officer and national coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, NSIPA.
Tinubu temporarily replaced Halima with the National N-Power Programme Manager, Akindele Egbuwalo, pending an investigation into the activities of the agency’s embattled former head.
NSIPA, which is in charge of critical programmes such as N-Power and Conditional Cash Transfer, reports to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and has recently come under fire.
It is unclear why Shehu was suspended because no reason was given.
The embattled NSIPA boss, on the other hand, has questions to answer and was indeed grilled by the EFCC on Tuesday.