FG to submit list of food vendors to EFCC as PDP alleges N13.5b scam in school feeding scheme

The federal government has announced its plan to submit a list of its food vendors to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), while also denying allegations of spending N679m ($1,739,881.82) daily on school feeding programme. 

 

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouk made the announcement after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alleged that the “school feeding claims by the Federal Government, when schools are shut due to COVID-19 pandemic, is a huge scam and a scheme by corrupt All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and some officials in the Buhari presidency to siphon a targeted N13.5 billion public funds to finance their wasteful lifestyles.”

 

The main opposition party which described “the use of innocent school children as cover to steal and funnel not less than N679 million daily to private purses as sacrilegious, wicked and completely unpardonable", added that "it is now clear that the APC-led administration’s school feeding programme had always been a scam, the claims to feed school children even when schools are closed are colossal racketeering taken too far.”

 

Sadiya Umar-Farouk who defended the federal government at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Friday May 15, denied claims of spending N679 million per day on the school feeding programme. 

 

She said; 

 

The Minister further revealed that they opted for a modified school programme because asking for a refund from vendors who have already bought food items in preparation for the project is impossible. 

 

Sadiya added;