The suspended Executive Director of Operations of Nigeria Social Investment Fund (NSITF), Kemi Nelson, has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over the crisis that the agency is encountering.
Nelson alleged in the letter that Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, fraudulently inserted N1.2 billion “as commissions to contributors” of the Fund and inserted 5 SUVs in the agency’s 2020 budget.
Nelson wrote to Buhari after the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer and three Executive Directors of NSITF were suspended by Ngige over allegations of corruption.
She urged President Buhari to call for an independent investigation of allegations slammed on the management of the agency.
Nelson said the allegations are unfounded and added that their suspension was because they kicked against the Minister’s fraudulent activities.
She said: “It need be revealed that the minister, single-handedly amended the 2020 budget of the NSITF in connivance with his stooge who is the board chairman, and inserted N1.2 billion as commissions to contributors, who do not require any commission, because their contributions are statutory. This is clear evidence of corrupt practice and budget padding. (We have documentary evidence of this.)
“The Minister on his own also inserted Five (5) number SUVs into the budget of the NSITF besides the Four (4) number Trust Fund vehicles already in his custody. This represents the type of reckless, unaccountable and corrupt expenditure that that the minister engages in and for which we are now being punished because we opposed such misapplication of public funds.
She added that “Appointing a stooge as the board secretary is against the Act establishing the NSITF, as only the board itself can appoint a professional as the board secretary. The Minister blatantly disregarded the Act while claiming it was the president who approved such decision and in clear violation of the law insisted on handpicking a board secretary all in fulfilling a personal agenda.”
