Halima Shehu ₦44bn fraud | Sojworldnews
Speaking on ARISE News, Shehu firmly rejected claims that she diverted public funds meant for vulnerable Nigerians. Instead, she maintained that she alerted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to alleged financial breaches within the agency shortly after she resumed office on October 18, 2023.
“I called on the EFCC Chairman while I was in office and handed over a letter stating all these violations of financial regulations in the agency,” she said. According to her, she submitted a formal petition to the anti-graft agency on December 21, 2023, weeks before her eventual suspension from office.
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Furthermore, Shehu explained that she personally uncovered unauthorised transactions after taking charge of NSIPA. She alleged that officials moved funds without her knowledge, including the payment of the remaining ₦3 billion balance of COVID-19 intervention funds into eleven accounts without her authorisation, consent, or approval. She also disclosed that additional signatories were added to the agency’s accounts without her approval, a development she says she flagged immediately to the ICPC.
Despite handing over what she described as comprehensive evidence, Shehu says the EFCC failed to act on her reports. Rather than commendation, she says she suffered consequences. “How come all the reports I gave to the EFCC didn’t matter? How come I was the first to register the complaints, but I got a reprisal instead of an honour?” she asked.
Notably, she was removed from office barely ten weeks after she first escalated the alleged violations, a timeline she believes speaks for itself. She was subsequently suspended by President Bola Tinubu in December 2023, and EFCC operatives later arrested and detained her before granting her bail on the condition that she report to the commission’s headquarters daily while investigations continued.
Throughout the interview, Shehu insisted that investigators never traced any of the missing funds to her or her relatives. “I never transferred ₦44 billion to any personal account. The EFCC never recovered a penny from my account, my family’s account, or any friend’s account,” she stated.
She further clarified that the transactions under scrutiny represented legitimate payments to licensed financial institutions and service providers contracted to disburse intervention funds directly to beneficiaries. According to her, these programmes existed before her appointment, and commercial banks engaged by the government handled the actual disbursement process.
Additionally, Shehu revealed that she escalated her concerns beyond the EFCC after receiving no meaningful response. She wrote further petitions to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and President Tinubu himself, seeking urgent intervention. Eventually, when those efforts yielded no results, she went public with an open letter to press her case.
Moreover, she maintained that she cooperated fully with investigators at every stage of the probe, honouring every invitation extended to her and providing all documents requested. She said she has nothing to hide and remains confident that the evidence will eventually clear her name.
“My integrity is my asset. I may have made administrative mistakes, but I am not corrupt, and I did not take funds meant for poor and vulnerable Nigerians,” she said.
In conclusion, Shehu appealed directly to President Tinubu to ensure that findings from the ongoing investigations into NSIPA are made public. She insists that transparency, not silence, remains the only path to restoring her reputation and delivering justice for the Nigerians the social investment programmes were designed to serve.
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