Reps threatens severe punishment as Humanitarian Minister fails appearance repeatedly to explain spent funds

The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation has summoned the Minister of Hummanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hadjia Sadiya Umar Farouq to appear before it over her continued refusal to appear at the ongoing budget defence for the 2022 fiscal year.

The Chairman of the Committee Hon. Muktar Betara who handed down the directive at the ongoing budget defence by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government threatened that the Committee would not hesitate to sanction the Ministry severely, should the Minister failed to honour the parliament’s summon.

The Committee was said to have repeatedly invited the Minister for the budget defence exercise, but she would not honour the invitation and without any genuine reason.

According to him, “Hadjia Sadiya Farouq, rather than appear before the Committee, kept delegating the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Nura Alkali, to do this function.”

“Alkali had made himself available, but the committee was uncomfortable with the Minister’s behaviours, making it to reject the Permanent Secretary’s appearance

“The Committee is insisting that the Minister, who superintend the spendings in the ministry should come forward to account and not the Permanent Secretary.

The Lawmaker who stated that the Committee would never approve the Permanent Secretary to defend the budget under whatever guise insisted that Hadjia Sadiya Farouq must appear before the committee in person to defend her ministry’s budget.

The Minister had overseen huge spendings of national funds on paliatives in the 2020 and 2021 budgets, and the Committee would want her to account for them. N