Reps to probe Osinbajo, Adeosun, Udoma over N500bn schemesemes

The House of Representatives has commenced a probe into the four Social intervention schemes of the federal government involving N500 billion.

It has mandated its committees to carry out an investigative hearing on the involvement of the Vice President’s Office, Ministries of Finance, Budget and National planning, as well as the state coordinators on the four schemes introduced by the present government.

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is the vice president, although he is currently on acting capacity as president due to the extended medical vacation of President Muhammadu Buhari in London.

Mrs Kemi Adeosun, and Udoma Udo Udoma are in charge of the ministries of Finance and Budget and National Planning respectively.

The House on Tuesday during its plenary session also directed its Committees on Finance and Poverty Alleviation to extend the investigation to the office of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Poverty Alleviation.

The four schemes under probe are, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Homegrown School Feeding Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the N-Power programme.

The directive followed a motion sponsored by Hon Mark Gbillah, APC member representing Gwer East/Gwer West constituency of Benue State, who argued that only members and supporters of the ruling party were being selected for the scheme to the detriment of the poor, which it is meant for.

He noted that officials of state governments and local government councils, in charge of the scheme used it to dish out favours to their family members and political associates, especially of the ruling party APC.

Lawmakers who contributed to the debate said they were concerned about the efficacy of the methodology and criteria employed for identification and selection, veracity of identity of the beneficiaries and the certainty of selection of the targeted demography without extraneous and political influences.

THey noted that this happens because identification and selection processes were ceded to the states and supervised by coordinators appointed by state governments without the involvement of the federal institutions that conceptualized and approved appropriation of funds for the schemes.

Gbillah lamented that the scheme had been hijacked by some states, and stressed the need for the House to exercise its constitutional powers to oversight the utilisation of the funds appropriated to the scheme, with a view to ensure the actualisation of the social intervention set objectives.

He said: “We should be concerned about the efficacy of the methodology and criteria employed for identification and selection, the veracity of the identity of the beneficiaries and the certainty of the selection of the targeted demographic without extraneous and political influences which still leave cause for concern and reservations by Nigerian.”

Speaking in support of the motion, Hon Emmanuel Egwu noted that many low income earners and the unemployed in Nigeria were still unaware of the modalities of keying into the scheme.

In his remarks, the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, canvassed a thorough probe of the funds appropriated in 2016 Appropriation Act as well as additional funds proposed for the scheme in the 2017 budget.

The House said based on reports, it appeared that most of the beneficiaries were loyal members of some big shots in political parties and the various state governments.

Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, who presided over the plenary, mandated the joint committees to investigate the allegations of favouritism and lopsided selection of beneficiaries of the N500 billion Federal Social Intervention scheme.

He also mandated the Committees to ascertain the method of identification and selection, the lack of involvement of all critical stakeholders and confirmation of the identities of beneficiaries and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.