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Edugate: Don’t spare anybody, Peter Obi tells Tinubu

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, asked President Bola Tinubu not to spare anybody found culpable in the alleged scandal involving the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu.

Obi, who made the appeal in a statement via his verified X-handle, said the government should go beyond the suspension of the minister and carry out a comprehensive investigation into the matter.

He described Edu’s suspension as a welcomed development, calling on the government to give the problem of public sector corruption severe urgency.

Obi lamented that a ministry created in good faith to attend to the plight of the suffering masses was being turned into a conduit pipe to steal from the poor, as seen in the current and previous ministers of the ministry.

“I like to add my voice with most Nigerians concerned about accountability in government and judicious use of public funds, to welcome the suspension of Edu, and subsequent directives for her investigation.

“The investigation must be comprehensive so that all those culpable are brought to book,” he added.

The former Anambra governor cautioned against taking the issue lightly, saying the suspension of the minister should not be a window-dressing action but rather a peg to get all those deserving of blame punished, just like the minister.

Obi said: “By a sad coincidence, the alleged fraudulent diversion of N585 million of public money by Edu broke almost at the same moment that the minister who held the same portfolio in the last administration is being investigated for a whopping N37 billion misappropriation.

“The ministry may have been created by the system as a conduit pipe to siphon public funds while using the poor as a face.
“Equally worrisome and disgusting is the fact that the missing funds are meant for poverty alleviation in a time of severe suffering among the people.

“Unfortunately, the ruling elites can shamelessly convert, divert, or misappropriate such huge sums meant for the poor and cannot be trusted to address the severe poverty ravaging the people.

“It is not only immoral but also insensitive for those entrusted with funds for public welfare to steal from the poor.’’
He called on the Tinubu administration to use these cases to initiate a thorough system-wide and systematic investigation of all reported cases of fraud and corruption among high government officials in the country.

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