He, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to immediately begin investigating the previous administration in order to recover stolen funds siphoned from the ‘poverty alleviation programmes’. Sani told the Voice of America that the former administration must account for funds spent in carrying out the SURE-P and other poverty alleviation programmes.
He said, “This has to do with reports on diversion and corruption that occurred during the last days of President Goodluck Jonathan, so we feel that the best way to do justice to this is to probe the diversion and the corruption that took place, especially with programmes like SURE-P, so that at least the (present) government would be able to retrieve stolen funds.”
This development came after the lawmaking body objected to a motion calling for the implementation of the All Progressives Congress’ campaign promise to give N5,000 monthly stipend to unemployed youths in a bid to alleviate high unemployment rate.
A former Chairman of SURE-P, Christopher Kolade, had resigned from the position in 2013, saying the programme had lost its credibility due to corruption and political interference.
However, senators from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party have dismissed the call for a probe, describing it as a witch-hunt. They argued that Buhari was ill-prepared to tackle the country’s socio-economic challenges and would use the probe to divert attention from his administration.
They also urged Buhari’s government to look forward instead of persecuting former officials.
But Sani further said that the current administration had promised to tackle corruption and recover stolen public funds, adding that his call for the probe was in line with that promise.
He said, “This is not a witch-hunt. It is simply about recovering funds that were stolen. It is not that we want to probe Jonathan from his first day (in office) and all aspects of his government. But what we are saying is that there are specific aspects of his government and programmes that were used as conduit pipe for siphoning public funds.”
