The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has taken custody of the travel documents of suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Betta Edu and her predecessor, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouq, as its investigations of allegation of fraud levelled against the duo and others continued.
The anti-graft agency also impounded the international passport of the suspended National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu.
The passport seizure was part of the conditions for granting the trio currently being investigated on financial
Edu, Umar-Farouq and Shehu were interrogated by the anti-graft agency over their activities in the ministry, particularly the disbursement of the Humanitarian Fund to beneficiaries.
In addition, the commission quizzed the managing directors of three deposit money banks, namely Zenith Bank, Providus Bank and Jaiz Bank over alleged suspicious payments by the top officials of the ministry under Umar-Farouq and Edu.
A source at the anti-graft agency was quoted by news reports as confirming that all those under interrogation should submit their travelling documents and that the passports of Betta, Sadiya, Halima and others had been seized.
The source said: “For Betta, who was grilled from 11 am till 6 pm, she was the last to be granted bail yesterday.
“We demanded their passports to restrict their movement, to enable them to be available for interrogation. They are all cooperating with us”, he added
According to sources, the three managing directors of banks were quizzed over the refusal of their banks raise alerts over the suspicious transactions.
Specifically, the lenders were alleged to have violated the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amendment) 2023, especially Sections 5, 10, and 16(b).
Over the past few days, the public has been inundated with the allegations against Betta Edu and others over abuses of the Financial Regulations in the public service involving depositing billions of Naira into private accounts of civil servants and payments of dubious contract sums to some companies linked to powerful politicians.
