By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Government of Nigeria has again distanced itself from fraud allegations raised against the N-Power scheme of creating jobs and empowering initiatives.
The scheme, which is under the supervision of the Social Investment Programme (SIP), has been dragged into application scandal several times.
With this new development, the FG said that such narratives were being driven by individuals who were pessimistic towards the social intervention programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
In a statement issued to public on the matter by the Communications Manager, National Social Investment Office (NSIO), Justice Bibiye, it said: “We are aware that some persons have assumed the role of perpetual pessimists of the Social Intervention Programme following the institution of processes and procedures that frown on selfish tendencies and corrupt practices at the NSIO.”
It then reiterated the government owed Nigerians a duty to set the record straight as regards happenings of N-Power, “We, however, owe it a duty to Nigerians to continue to set the records straight whenever naysayers come up with falsehoods to mislead the public.
“We wish to state categorically that there are no N-Power ghost beneficiaries neither is the programme embroiled in corruption as alleged by those who have decided to see nothing good in the scheme.” It concluded.
In 2016, The government was denied a similar accusation following claims that some beneficiaries might have infiltrated the scheme to defraud it. The Office of the Vice President, which oversees N-Power debunked the claim, stating that the beneficiaries were verified with Bank Verification Number (BVN).
However, last month, the programme disengaged 2525 beneficiaries in late July for absconding from their Places of Primary Assignment (PPA).
The government then made it known that the beneficiaries which targeted unemployed Nigerians were undermining the scheme which is not a charity programme.
Modupe Gbadeyanka