•Tunji-Ojo shuns CCB summons, cites national assignment

Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has expressed dismay over the report emanating from the social media over an alleged approval by President Bola Tinubu, through his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to spend an outrageous N3 billion to verify national register of the poor.

Its National Secretary, Peter Ameh, in a statement, yesterday, said the coalition is disturbed by the development, condemning what he described as mindless attack on the collective purse of the nation under the guise of verification of national register.

He said: “This reckless and mindless spending on verification of national register reflects a lack of fiscal discipline and responsibility that has become a hallmark of President Tinubu’s government, who in the guise of helping the poor, keeps elevating cronyism as an art, which we ignorantly thought had gone with ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Ameh added: “It is CUPP’s belief that this mindless spending through cronies such as New Planet Projects Limited, a company controlled by the family of Dr. Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, undermines whatever little confidence Nigerians may have had in the present government.

“Therefore, it brings to the fore the urgent need for more rigorous budgetary oversights by the National Assembly, which has from day one, begun to exhibit all the symptoms of a rubber stamp parliament that abdicates its oversight functions when most needed.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has shunned an invitation by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) over an ongoing investigation bordering on alleged breach of code of conduct for public officers.

Our correspondent, who was at the CCB headquarters in Abuja, yesterday, observed that the minister, who was scheduled to meet with the interrogators at 11am, did not show up at the bureau between 10am and 1pm.

Confirming the development in a telephone interview, spokesperson for the CCB, Veronica Kato, added that the minister’s interrogation would be rescheduled for a later date, having excused himself for a national assignment.

“Yes, the minister’s interrogation has been rescheduled. He wrote, asking that it be rescheduled because he has a national assignment, so it has been rescheduled for a later date,” Kato said.

When asked about the next scheduled date, she said there was no specific date yet.

“We don’t have a precise date now, but it has been rescheduled to another day,” the spokesperson added. The CCB had invited the embattled minister over the involvement of his company in a N438 million contract with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. (The Guardian)

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