The Independent and Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC have nabbed two N-SIP officials in Kogi state following intelligence reports of the diversion of funds meant for catering to school children.
According to a statement issued by the Spokesperson of the Commission, Rasheedat Okoduwa who said the suspects Khadijat Karibo Programme Manager for School feeding project in Kogi state and Adoga Ibrahim, a former Project committee member were involved in an alleged fraud up to the tune of N68million.
Okoduwa stated that the Commission had received a petition concerning the two suspects.
“A petition alleging that the erstwhile State Focal Person and the Programme Manager had connived and diverted large sums of money meant for payments to cooks in the national school feeding programme in Kogi State was received by ICPC,” the statement read.
“The petition alleged that the duo had perpetrated unlawful and unethical deductions from the accounts of cooks by the use of letters purportedly signed by them conveying their consent that a blanket and unspecified amount be moved to 10 different business accounts from the cooks’ accounts for sundry aggregated commodity supplies.”
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“The petition further alleged that the massive fraudulent actions were pulled off by the officials acting in concert with some banks in the state. Preliminary findings from ICPC investigations indicate that for the programme to aggregate food items, the request must come from a state governor clearly stating the names and details of suppliers to the National Coordinator of the NHGSFP for approval,” it read.
“This approval was lacking in the case under investigation as Ibrahim only submitted a request in September 2018 but could not present evidence of approval, hence money was paid directly by the programme to the cooks’ accounts.”
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