Ghost Schools Surface in Nigeria, Enjoy Federal Government Money
- Investigations have shown that some ghost schools are benefitting from federal government's feeding programme
- According to an investigation, some officials were pocketing the money meant for school feeding programme in Nasarawa
- Meanwhile, two key officials of the programme in Nasarawa have been promptly suspended and replaced
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In what can be described as another sad chapter in the history of Nigeria, the federal government has uncovered 349 ghost schools in Nasarawa state.
Specifically, the enumeration committee of the federal government homegrown feeding programme for public primary schools made the discovery.
Team leader of the committee and adviser to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Mallam Abdullahi Usman, disclosed this when he led the members of the committee on a courtesy call on Governor Abdullahi Sule at the Government House, Lafia.
Source: Original
According to him, some of the officials were pocketing the money meant for schools feeding programme in the state.
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He said at the beginning of the programme, 1,203 public primary schools were captured as benefiting schools.
Adding that:
“After due process of vetting, the committee discovered that 349 of such schools were actually ghost schools, with some officials pocketing the money meant for feeding these schools."
He, however, maintained that following the discovery, top ministry officials in Abuja called for the removal of Nasarawa State from the scheme but the decision was rejected in order not to punish the poor children that would benefit from the scheme.
He further explained that two key officials of the programme in Nasarawa State, the state programme officer and the consultant were suspended and replaced.
Children, teachers lament as FG's school feeding programme suffers setback
Recall that Legit.ng had reported that the effort to keep children in school through the federal government's school feeding programme seems to be having a hard time with vendors failing to show up in the different schools.
Schools across states like Benue, Akwa Ibom, Egun, Kano, Cross Rivers, Bauchi and Ogun were experiencing downtime with the programme as vendors have failed to turn up because of non-payment of their funds.
It was gathered that the vendors have completely stopped providing food for the schools even though their operations were never consistent in the first place.
FG's feeding programme: DSS arrests teachers, desk officers, food vendors for diverting items
The Directorate of State Security Service (DSS) operatives arrested many teachers and desk officers in charge of the federal government Home Grown School Feeding programme for allegedly sabotaging the programme.
At least 10 were also apprehended for allegedly conniving with the teachers and the desk officers to shortchange the process.
The operatives made arrests majorly from a primary school in Minna, while others were nabbed in the Katcha local government area and Gwada in the Shiroro LGA of Niger state.
Source: Legit.ng
