The Special Adviser to President
Muhammadu Buhari on Social Investments, Maryam Uwais, has filed a N2 billion
suit against Leadership newspaper for an alleged defamatory report on the
National Social Investments Programmes (NSIP).
The court document filed on
September 13 said the report, titled
”Aisha Buhari Right on NSIP” caused Mrs Uwais an ”irreparable damage to
reputation”.
Mrs Uwais demanded N2 billion as
“punitive aggravated and exemplary damages” and N2 million as cost of this
suit.
She filed the suit at the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) court through Olufemi Fabunmi, Oluwole Abiola, Mu’awiya
Yinusa, and Victor Forghe of Primera Africa law chamber in Abuja.
She requested “An order of the
court compelling the defendant to pay the sum of N2 billion to the claimant as
punitive aggravated and exemplary damages for the public ridicule and loss to
reputation.”
‘Cesspool of impunity’
The Leadership newspaper in the
report, published on July 23 said the first lady, Aisha Buhari’s claims that
the NSIP failed to justify its annual N500 billion budget for its four
programmes ”may not be far from the truth”.
The newspaper also reported that
Mrs Uwais ”had turned the NSIP into a cesspool of impunity, injustice and
corrupt practices”.
N-SIP was set up by the Buhari
administration to improve the living conditions of millions of poor Nigerians
across the country.
The programmes include N-Power,
National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), National Cash Transfer
Project (NCTP), and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
Mrs Buhari, on May 27, criticised
the scheme coordinated by Mrs Uwais, and said the initiative failed to reach
its intended beneficiaries in two states, Adamawa and Kano.
Mrs Buhari who spoke at a forum
at the Presidential Villa said she was told that 30,000 women from Adamawa
would benefit from the programme but nothing of such happened.
“The SSA to the president on
social investment is a lady from Kano and I’m sure that my husband decided to
put somebody from Kano because of the population and political impact it made.
I have never asked how the money is used or being given out,” she said.
In reaction to Mrs Buhari’s
observations, the National Social Investment Office (NSIO), coordinator of the
NSIP, in a statement in May, however, itemised its
achievements in Adamawa and Kano.
President Buhari during the Independence
Day speech said the NSIPs will now be moved to the newly created ministry of
social development.
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