An advocacy group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, has warned the Federal Government against mixing up the recovered $322m Abacha loot, being shared to poor Nigerians, with the COVID-19 funds donated by philanthropists.
The group said the government must let Nigerians know that the $322m Abacha loot, being shared as N5,000 Conditional Cash Transfer, is not the same as the palliative to cushion the economic effect of COVID-19 lockdown on the masses.
In a statement on Sunday by its Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, HEDA particularly accused the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Farouq, of attempting to confuse the Conditional Cash Transfer, which began in 2016, with government’s COVID-19 funds.
HEDA, which said it had been monitoring the N5,000 Conditional Cash Transfer, said only 900,000 households had benefited, contrary to the claim that over two million households had been reached.
While saying it was following donations to the federal and state governments towards tackling COVID-19, the group said it would demand accountability and warned government not to play politics with the plight of the Nigerian poor masses.
HEDA said, “The least we owe Nigerians is not to play politics with the misery of millions of people. The fact is that the Conditional Cash Transfer began in 2016.”
