Aisha Alhassan In N11.7m Scandal, After Disowning Buhari

After publicly disowning President Muhammadu Buhari and declared support for former Vice President Atiku Bubakar, Aisha Alhassan, Minister of Women’s Affairs, has been enmeshed in a N11.7 million financial misappropriation scandal.

An audit report from office the Auditor-General revealed that, Alhassan, on her first day in office as minister in 2015, spent the said sum on ‘familiarisation visits’ to undisclosed skill acquisition centres across several states.

“Audit investigation established that the purported acclaimed appraisal visits to skill acquisition centres were never undertaken,” the report showed.

According to Premium Times, the audit committee found that ‘‘all the attached receipts for fuelling did not indicate quantity in litres, the rate per litre, dates of purchase and vehicle number of the fuelled vehicles.

“The International hotel receipt of 23/11/15 which was issued for the hiring of a mini-bus from a hotel to unnamed project sites rendered the receipts doubtful.

“Hiring of cars to Project Sites at ridiculous rates of between N75, 000.00 and N77, 000.00 for two days as appeared on receipts numbers 910 of 22/11/15, 107 of 24/11/15, 0416 of 27/11/15, 531 of 25/11/15, is contrary to exercise of the due economy in line with the provision of Financial Regulation 415.

“Receipt number 5206 of 11/11/2015, the date the Minister was sworn in by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and receipt number 11622 of 8th of November, 2015 with amount N100,000.00 respectively are not clear. The two receipts were for servicing of a vehicle two times within 3 days,’’ the committee noted.

Alhassan had said even if President Buhari declares his intention to seek reelection into office in 2019, she would rather campaign for her “god father,’’ referring to Atiku.