School Feeding Program: massive fraud uncovered in Nasarawa

The federal government school feeding program has discovered 349 non-existent schools in the list of the program’s beneficiaries in Nasarawa state. 

How did this come to light? 

The program’s enumeration committee, led by Mallam Abdullahi Usman, made the disclosure during a courtesy call on Governor Abdullahi Sule at the Nasarawa state Government House, Lafia. Usman said 1,203 public primary schools in the state were captured as beneficiaries when the program began, but after verification, the committee found that 349 of the schools were non-existent, but were smuggled into the list by officials who pocketed the funds meant for those schools. 

Have the culprits been punished? 

Usman explained that two key officials of the program in the State – the state program officer and the consultant – were suspended and replaced. He added that in response to the discovery, top officials in the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs in Abuja considered the removal of Nasarawa State from the scheme, but the decision was overruled to avoid punishing the poor school children that should benefit from the scheme.