Betta Edu: EFCC invites bank chiefs over alleged fraud

The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Zenith, Providus, and Jaiz banks were  on Tuesday, January 9 invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for questioning  over the N44 billion fraud allegedly uncovered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

Punch reports that the senior back executives were as at this evening still being interrogated by EFCC interrogators at the commission’s headquarters, Jabi, Abuja. The suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu, arrived the anti-graft agency office this morning for interrogation by the EFCC over ₦585million scandal.

Also, Halima Shehu, the embattled Co-ordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency domiciled in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation is being probed by the EFCC over an alleged ₦44bn fraud.

Confirming the probe of the senior bank executives, an EFCC source revealed that Zenith, Providus, and Jaiz banks are being questioned over the ₦44.5bn fraud uncovered in the ministry involving Edu and Shehu.

The source said

“The CEOs and MDs of Zenith Bank, Providus Bank, and Jaiz Bank are currently being grilled by our interrogators here at the headquarters. They were invited and are being probed in connection with the uncovered ₦44bn fraud and the ₦585million involving Halima Shehu and Betta Edu. The suspended minister and the coordinator have both made new revelations during their interrogations, and the investigation is still ongoing.”

Edu was suspended by President Bola Tinubu on Monday, over an alleged N585m cash transfer saga. The suspended minister was invited by the anti-graft agency in compliance with Tinubu’s order that a comprehensive investigation encompassing her activities in the ministry be carried out.

Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Farouq, was queried by EFCC interrogators on Monday, January 7 over allegations that she laundered N37.1 billion while serving as a minister in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.