The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has given more details on its probe of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
The details had it that trillions of naira was moved out of the ministry’s account, including N14 billion in one hour.
The Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, revealed this when he spoke with newsmen at the headquarters of the commission in the Jabi area of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
According to Olukoyede, what the anti-graft agency was doing goes beyond probing the suspended Minister of the Ministry, Dr. Betta Edu; her predecessor, Sadiya Farouk; and suspended Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, Halima Shehu.
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He said it was the whole system that the EFCC was probing.
He said: “N14 billion, under one hour, was moved.
“You call that a system?
“I told people: ‘Look, the people that have been suspended, if we had replaced them by now, even if you had brought saints into that ministry, in 24 hours, that saint would be contaminated.
“So, it’s not about Betta Edu, neither is it about Halima.
“Let’s not personalise the matter.
“Let’s not single out an individual.
“It’s about the system.
“It’s the system we are investigating.
“So, whosoever is found culpable, along the line, are the people that would be held.
“If I’m running after Betta Edu or Halima, and hundreds of other people are stealing money…
“Do you think this investigation started during Betta Edu’s time?
“Do you think it started during Halima’s?
“Do you even think it started during Sadiyya’s time as minister?
“Before that ministry was established, every single kobo that was allocated to that ministry was under investigation.
“So, we are talking of trillions (of naira).
“If we keep talking about Betta Edu, we won’t get anywhere.
“We would go back to where we are coming from.
“So, let us take our time and, in any case, when did we even start this investigation?
“I’ve said it before, we are investigating over 50 accounts.
“You must understand some of these processes.
“For each account, we write letters to banks and the banks reply.
“From there, we get other leads.
“From there, we follow those leads again and we start writing letters.
“Sometimes, it takes two, three weeks for them to reply.
“We bring people, we interview them.
“We run after those ones.
“Investigation takes time.
“I’ve not come out to say I’ve indicted so and so person.
“What I said was that we have recovered so, so amount.”