President Bola Tinubu has suspended all programmes administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
Tinubu said that “during the period of this suspension, all NSIPA-related activities, including but not limited to all distributions, events, payments, collaborations, and registrations, are now frozen.”
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, explained that the suspension was further to the ongoing investigation of alleged malfeasance in the management of the agency and its programmes.
According to a statement signed by a Director of Information in the office of the SGF, Segun Imohiosen, and made available to newsmen, Akume said: “All four programmes administered by NSIPA, viz., the N-Power Programme, the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, and the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (the “Programmes”), have been suspended for a period of six weeks in the first instance.”
The SGF further said: “President Bola Tinubu has also raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the programmes’ beneficiaries.
“He has therefore constituted a ministerial panel to conduct a thorough review of the agency’s operations with a view to recommending necessary reforms of the NSIPA.”
The statement added that the President assures “stakeholders and all Nigerians that his administration remains committed to a swift and unbiased process that will ensure that, going forward, social intervention programmes will work exactly as intended, to the benefit of the most vulnerable Nigerians.
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
