The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on the SIP, Maryam Uwais have said that traditional rulers and government officials from Osun, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Benue and Niger states are sabotaging TraderMoni, by collecting bribes from beneficiaries of the N10,000 Social Investment Programme.
Speaking on behalf of the presidency at the 13th Anti-Corruption Agenda for the 9th National Assembly, Uwais also alleged that effort to prosecute the individuals sabotaging the TraderMoni scheme has not been successful.
She said, “There are people in the local government areas and at the state levels who have been able to exploit the vulnerability of our beneficiaries. Some of those beneficiaries don’t even report because they are thankful for whatever they get and they believe that the people who are trying to take this money from them are actually capable of removing their names from the list. We asked our monitors to investigate and we discovered that it was true. We are planning to visit all those communities and assure all those women of their protection. We have reported those cases to the security agencies. Whether or not the security agencies have been swift or aggressive in their approach is another issue. As far as compiling and submitting our findings to security agencies, we have done our best. The BoI has been able to apprehend and report the perpetrators of such acts. We have given our statements to the anti-corruption agency. The suspects have been invited but I’m yet to see any prosecution. Some of the affected states are in Osun, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina. All of them are being investigated and we have submitted our report. I have also reported Benue and Niger with evidence forwarded to the law enforcement agencies.”