Suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Betta Edu was spotted at the Aso Villa in Abuja moment after her suspension on Monday afternoon, Channels Television can confirm.
Channels Television can also confirm that she was denied access to President Bola Tinubu.
After fruitless efforts, the embattled minister was seen leaving the Villa about 30 minutes after her suspension was announced.
The 37-year-old was caught in a N585m disbursement scandal involving her ministry, attracting widespread criticisms from rights groups and activists.
Edu’s predicament was worsened when the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, confirmed that although her office received a request from the humanitarian ministry to make certain payments, her office did not act on it.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, said his principal suspended Edu with immediate effect and ordered the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, “to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions” involving the ministry and “one or more agencies thereunder”.
Incidentally, the EFCC is presently probing Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Farouq, over the alleged laundering of N37.1 billion during her tenure as a minister under the administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
Edu, 37, the youngest in the President’s cabinet before her suspension, was a fast-rising Amazon in the political space having occupied state and national offices at a young age.
Before her ministerial appointment last August, she was Cross River State Commissioner for Health and the National Women Leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). Edu was a prominent figure in the campaign train of Tinubu, the then APC presidential candidate, during the electioneering process that brought the ex-Lagos governor into office as President.
Edu clinched her ministerial appointment about three months after Tinubu was sworn in as President. Her tenure as minister was, however, shortlived barely six months after, perhaps the shortest tenure by a minister in a long while. (Channels)
