Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to transfer N32.7 billion and $445,000 recovered from officials of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
According to Falana, who also chairs the Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), the recovered funds were originally allocated for the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).
The initiative covers key schemes such as N-Power, school feeding, conditional cash transfers, and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
The senior lawyer explained that the EFCC had successfully traced and recovered the funds, yet the money had not been redirected for its intended use.
“We commend the EFCC and urge it to intensify efforts to recover the outstanding N20 billion still unaccounted for.
But more importantly, the recovered N32.7 billion and $445,000 should be transferred to the National Social Investment Programme Agency to help alleviate the hardship faced by over 133 million multi-dimensionally poor Nigerians,” he said.
Meanwhile, his statement comes at a time when demands for transparency in Nigeria’s welfare sector have grown louder.
Recent corruption scandals linked to social intervention funds have raised concerns about accountability and weakened public trust.
Furthermore, Falana urged federal, state, and local governments to scale up their contributions to social protection initiatives.
He pointed out that with recent increases in government revenue, it was inexcusable for poverty alleviation programmes to continue receiving what he described as token support.
The legal luminary maintained that meaningful investments in social programmes could help cushion the effects of inflation and economic hardship.
He stressed that recovered public funds must not remain idle when millions of Nigerians were in desperate need of relief.
His remarks also underline the EFCC’s long-standing policy of returning recovered funds to their original purposes.
However, stakeholders argue that the commission must go beyond recovery and ensure the actual utilisation of such funds in line with public interest.
