By Omeiza Ajayi
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to constitute an independent team of experts to trace ₦33.75 billion reportedly paid to 3.29 million vulnerable Nigerian households, after an audit report raised questions over whether the money actually reached its intended beneficiaries.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Saturday, the former vice president said the audit findings amounted to a devastating indictment of a government that took away the poor man’s subsidy, increased his taxes and tariffs, promised support, and is now confronted with serious questions over whether that support ever reached him.
Shaibu quoted Atiku as saying the figures themselves expose the cruelty and inadequacy of the intervention, noting that ₦33.75 billion divided among 3.29 million households amounts to barely ₦10,258 per household.
According to the statement, after removing subsidy, driving up transport fares, electricity costs and food prices, the President Bola Tinubu administration’s supposed intervention amounts to roughly ₦10,000 per household, and even that sum has now failed to withstand basic audit scrutiny.
