Sadiya Umar Farouq, the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, has been asked to resign because she ignored the House of Representatives’ repeated invitations to appear.
During the committee’s investigation into a charge of budget padding against her ministry, Aliyu Betara, the chairman of the Reps Committee on Appropriations, demanded the resignation of the minister.
During the committee’s investigation into a charge of budget padding against her ministry, Aliyu Betara, the chairman of the Reps Committee on Appropriations, demanded the resignation of the minister.
According to reports, the legislature should no longer allow Farouq’s continual avoidance of questioning by several committees of the lower legislative chamber since it was improper.
The minister was supposed to appear before the Reps committee to address concerns over the alleged padding of her ministry’s 2023 budget by N206 billion, but she did not.
The committee’s chairman was irritated by Farouq’s behavior and requested her to leave “If she is not ready for the job,” saying that “most times the committee calls the minister,” but that she consistently declines their invitation.
According to reports, the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry put N206,242,395,000 billion into its budget to buy mosquito nets for its National Social Safety Nets Project, which is already receiving funding from the World Bank.
Farouq originally claimed that the money was accidentally added to the budget in an effort to defend herself.
“The project was correctly described in the submission in the 2023 budget, but unfortunately the Budget Office used wrong code,” she claimed.