School feeding programme: Reps speak about investigating VP Osinbajo

The House of Representatives has declared that it is not investigating the office of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo over procurements made regarding the federal government’s school feeding programme.

Chairman of the House Committee, Hon. Wole Oke made the clarification in response to insinuations in certain quarters that Osinbajo’s office was being probed.

Addressing the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Olusola Idowu, Oke said the committee’s interest was in the Ministry and not Osinbajo’s office.

Oke said the probe was to get comprehensive documentary evidence of the procurement carried out by the Ministry.

He said: “By our records, the office of the Vice President is responsible for policy formulation and monitoring of the National Social Investment Programme.

“Our investigation has nothing to do with the office of the Vice President but the Ministry.

“Our interest now is on the Home School Feeding programme and that is why we want the Ministry to give us records of procurement. Nobody should make a mistake about that, our mission is not available for anybody to use to malign anybody. We want to put that on record that we are not investigating the office of the Vice President.”

Recall that Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, had recently disclosed that the federal government spent N523.3 million on its school feeding programme.

Farouq had said the federal government spent the sum on the Home Grown School Feeding Programme during the COVID-19 lockdown.