Following the allegation of fraud, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has suspended all programmes administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
The decision was announced on Friday by the Director of Information, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen.
According to Imohiosen, the suspension was to give room for the ongoing investigation of alleged malfeasance in the management of the agency and its programmes.
The Presidency specifically said all four programmes administered by NSIPA, namely N- Power Programme, the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and Home Grown School Feeding Programme have been suspended for six weeks in the first instance.
Furthermore, the Director stated that President Tinubu has raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the programmes’ beneficiaries.
He has therefore constituted a ministerial panel to conduct a thorough review of the agency’s operations and recommend necessary reforms to NSIPA.
During the period of this suspension, all NSIPA-related activities, including but not limited to all distributions, events, payments, collaborations, and registrations, are frozen.
“The President wishes to assure the stakeholders and all Nigerians that his administration remains committed to a swift and unbiased process that will ensure that, going forward, social intervention programmes will work exactly as intended, to the benefit of the most vulnerable Nigerians,” Imohiosen noted in the statement made available to reporters.
Meanwhile, a Jos Magistrates’ Court on Friday sentenced an 18-year-old trader, ThankGod Daniel, to nine months imprisonment for breaking into a house and stealing cable wires.
Magistrate Shawomi Bokkos summarily sentenced Daniel after he pleaded guilty.
Bokkos, however, gave the convict an option to pay a N20,000 fine or three months in prison.
He also ordered him to pay N300,000 as compensation to the complainant or, in default, to spend another six months in prison.
The magistrate said the punishment would serve as a deterrent to other would-be offenders.
The Prosecution Counsel, Insp Ijuptil Thlwar, had earlier informed the court that the case was reported on December 13, 2023, at the Anglo-Jos Police Station by Fatima Shekarou, the complainant.
The prosecutor said the convict broke into the house and stole cable wires worth N 500,000 before he was caught.
He said that offence is punishable under the provision of the Plateau State Penal Code Law.