The Senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki, has queried President Goodluck Jonathan’s handling of the N80 billion Terror Victims Support Fund raised for victims of insurgency last year.
Saraki, in two separate tweets on his Twitter handle: @Bukolasaraki, with the hashtag #FactcheckGEJ, on Thursday asked Nigerians to rate the performance of President Jonathan several months after promising to put an end to violence in the country.
Saraki tweeted: “On November 11, 2014, GEJ said that he will do everything humanly possible to end this violence. Rate his performance.”
In the second tweet, Saraki said: “What happened to N80 billion Terror Victims Support Fund raised in 2014? Or is it N60 billion since they keep changing figures?”
The Terror Victims Support Fund was intended to assist victims of the ongoing insurgency in the North East and other parts of the country by the Federal Government.
Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee headed by Theophilus Danjuma, a retired Army General and former Defence Minister, on the issue.
The terms of reference for the committee included identifying sources and ways of raising sustainable funding to support victims of Boko Haram terror activities; and to develop appropriate strategies for the fund raising and to ascertain the persons, communities, facilities and economic assets affected by Boko Haram terror activities.
Saraki described Danjuma as a man of great character and credibility.
He said he was certain Danjuma had done justice to the assignment of the committee and it now remains to see what Jonathan has done with the funds raised.
The committee was also mandated to assess and determine the appropriate support required in each case, manage, disburse or administer support to the victims as appropriate; to address related challenges as may be appropriate; and to advice the government on other matter(s) necessary or incidental to support victims of Boko Haram terror activities among others.
It will be recalled that while inaugurating the committee, Jonathan had told the members to mobilise collective efforts and resources in support of terror victims and urged Nigerians and non-Nigerians, individuals and corporate bodies to give generously to the fund.
Donors to the funds so far included banks and captains of blue chips industries in the country.