President won’t spare culprits after probe into Humanitarian Affairs ministry

The Presidency yesterday assured Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu would not spare any of his appointees found culpable in the ongoing probes of the activities of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, made this known while featuring as a guest on TVC’s Politics on Sunday. He also said speculations of a possible cabinet reshuffle, following the suspension of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, were hasty.

President Tinubu had last week suspended Edu over the transfer of N585 billion into the private account of a contractor.

Ngelale said there would be no sacred cows in the investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a special presidential panel headed by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun.

His words: “The President has given full instruction to the EFCC chairman (Ola Olukoyede) to not only conduct a thorough investigation.

“The way the President would direct such an investigation is to say that nobody, no name, should be left out if they are found wanting in the situation. No sacred cows at all.

“Anywhere this investigation takes the EFCC and other investigating authorities, that is where the investigation must go and the President will take action accordingly.”

Ngelale added that the President had “since made it clear to all members of his administration, within the Federal Executive Council and private meetings, that he will not tolerate any form of indiscipline, corruption, dereliction of duty or any other form of incompetence.”

Tinubu, according to him, ”is not going to let time go by and If he fully understands that somebody is not up to the task, he will fix the problem and fix it as quickly as possible.”

The Presidential spokesman also clarified that the speculations of possible cabinet reshuffling would have to wait until the ongoing investigations have provided conclusive ends.

Ngelale said, “At this point, it is in the realm of speculation. What is not in the realm of speculation, however, is that the President has ordered a thorough investigation.

And wherever that investigation takes him, he will act accordingly. “I do think that the President would not make such a move until he has a clear idea of exactly what that investigation has unearthed and whether or not there are other officials of the government that he feels would need to be roped into such an exercise on the basis of whatever the findings of that investigation are.”

“On the speculations of a possible cabinet reshuffle, It is only natural to drive such stories, particularly if there’s even a whisper that such a thing could occur.

“But I think it’s important that we not preempt the activities of the President. The President is fully aware of all factors related to what people are doing and not doing within his administration.

“He does have a special adviser on policy and coordination in the person of Hadiza Bala Usman, who is also monitoring the activities of the MDAs with respect to performance-related issues, and he has all of that information at any point in time.”