Kogi Sacks 111 Cooks over School Feeding Programme Fraud Allegations

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

The Kogi State Focal Person of National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), Abdulkareem Onyekehi Suleiman, disclosed this in Lokoja, at a public hearing held at the Kogi State House of Assembly on A Bill for a Law for The Establishment of Kogi State Social Investment Programme Agency.

The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) was introduced during former President Muhammadu Buhari regime with the aims of improving the health status, enrollment and educational outcomes of public primary school pupils.

Onyekehi averred that the Kogi State Government had engaged 3000 cooks for the School Feeding Program,me, adding that some cooks kept engaging in sharp practices after receiving payment from the federal government to prepare meals for school pupils.

He said, “Whatever you do in a public office, it is important you ensure accountability and ensure sanctions in case of fraud. We are coordinated. We have local government coordinators monitoring the programmes and we are also working with anti-graft agencies and secret service that are part of this programme.

“We have had cases where some cooks that are supposed to be preparing meals for school pupils receive money and they will not prepare the meals. We have about 3000 cooks and we have disciplined 111 of them in recent time.

“We recommend them for removal from the scheme and we have reported them to the appropriate authority for the discipline and punishment they deserved. We found out that they received money and they will not prepare meals for our school pupils.

“Some of them are also not doing it in line with the guidelines. All these things, we have our report and we have given appropriate punishment. We have also made arrest of some people who commit fraud in the various local governments concerning other interventions from the government to cushion the hardship in our country.

“We are not taking it lightly from anybody. Immediately the agency gets its report, we always swing into action and sanction whoever violates the programme or defraud the people of Kogi State.

Onyekehi, who disclosed that not all schools had been captured in the programme, said the government before now had been feeding 177,000 pupils in Kogi State and their target is to capture all the public primary schools in the state to accommodate all pupils in primary 1-3.

While noting that the state government last recruited over 800 additional cooks in 2021, the Kogi State Focal Person of NSIP gave reasons why the programme has not continued for sometime.

“The federal government is carrying out enumeration and revalidation exercise to continue the process. They could not approve the additional cooks yet to capture more schools that will accommodate more pupils that have not benefitted from the program. That is one challenge. Another challenge is that, for over a year, we have not done school feeding program. “Why, because of electioneering, change of government and stabilisation of the ministry to continue the program.

“In 2020, there was no school feeding program at all because of the COVID-19 pandemic and 2021 began towards end of the year. As a result we have been relatively inconsistent in the program.

“We hope that in the Renewed Hope mantra of President Tinubu, we are hoping to hit the ground running and make the program to be more consistent and frequent in a bid to meet the objective of the Government. On our own, we are going to initiate our own state policy that will complement the policy of the Federal Government by doing it differently in line with the peculiarity of our State to ensure we alleviate poverty in Kogi State,” he stated.

Onyekehi argued that, the National Social Investment Program (NSIP), in Kogi State has achieved more under his leadership, stressing that, the State was recently adjudged the best in Nigeria which was made possible with the maximum support of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.

On the positive move by the Kogi State Government to create the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the

NSIP focal person in the State described it as a welcome development adding that, its operation will be backed by law and help to address the challenges of vulnerable people in Kogi State.

Continuing, Onyekehi said “As a matter of fact, Kogi State was rated as the best NSIP in Nigeria in all ramifications. We have good record in terms of office complex, coordination, effective implementations, responsiveness, transparency and reporting mechanism at the federal ministry of humanitarian affair under my supervision. All programs are housed under one roof which made it easier for effective coordination. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of his Excellency Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello.

“What we are doing is simple. We are the first state in Nigeria to establish ministry for the Program and also establishing the corresponding agency for the program at the same time. We are doing this to institutionalise and sustain the programs because we know the importance of these programs in the lives of the vulnerable group of people in our society.”