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From Paul Orude Bauchi
Embattled Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has denied diverting funds meant for the various government intervention programmes to Bauchi State for political purposes.
The minister’s husband, former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Saddique Abubakar (rtd) is the 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bauchi State.
The minister also denied abandoning her office and relocating to Bauchi to push the political interest of her husband.
Sadiya Umar Farouk was reacting to allegations levelled against her by a group, ‘APC Initiative for Good Governance’ that the minister had diverted Social Investment Programme funds meant for the entire country to Bauchi State.
The minister who reacted through her media aide, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, dismissed all the allegations in a statement made available to journalists in Bauchi late Friday evening.
The statement read in part: “At no time did Umar Farouq divert Social Investment Programmes meant for the 36 states and the FCT to Bauchi nor did she ever abandon the responsibilities of her office to relocate to Bauchi.
“On the contrary, she has been working tirelessly and assiduously to ensure that no vulnerable Nigerian is left to go hungry, and to also lift them higher than where she met them.
