Eminent professor of paediatrics, Mrs. Adenike Grange, made an emotional exit from the federal cabinet on Tuesday after just nine months as Minister of Health.
Both former ministers were believed to be the first casualties in the reported case of unauthorised spending allegedly made in the Ministry of Health from the unspent funds from the 2007 budget.
Our correspondents at the State House reported that the duo left the President’s office at 3.07pm and while Aduku put on a brave front, Grange was visibly distraught and fought back tears.
Both were under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the sum of N300m that was allegedly misapplied by health ministry officials.
It was learnt on Tuesday that both ex-ministers will be subjected to fresh interrogations today (Wednesday) by the EFCC.
Grange and Aduku declined to speak to newsmen who sought to obtain comments from them as they moved along the State House corridor.
At a stage, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ambassador Baba-Gana Kingibe, intervened to rescue the forlorn ex-ministers from journalists.
He said, “This is insensitive, just leave it (the interview). Leave it please, this is inhuman.”
But the 67-year-old Grange in a statement to journalists on Tuesday evening accepted the responsibility for the “episode” involving the “contracts and welfare packages.”
She, however, said that she would not accept blame for the deed.
According to the former consultant to various international health bodies, she was leaving the cabinet to return to her unblemished career.
The former minister said she saw her “invitation to serve on this cabinet as an opportunity for professionals to join in the extirpation and re-engineering of the whole system to move this great country forward expediently.”
She admitted a high level of decay and corruption in the ministry and the Nigerian system.
She said although she was not the chief accounting officer to the ministry; “the recent episode involving ‘contracts and welfare packages’ happened under my leadership for which I accept responsibility but not the blame.”
Grange, however, said her acceptance of responsibility “should not be misconstrued as an admission of guilty but rather a path of honour for lapses and intrigues under my watch for which I unfortunately was not well versed in.”
She added, “I am leaving this cabinet because I consider my dignity, reputation and legacy, values that I have worked hard for and hold dearly. I am returning to my unblemished career which I have assiduously laboured for over the years with resounding success nationally and internationally.”
When Grange and Aduku got to the courtyard of the Administrative Wing of the Presidential Villa, they stood and waited for a while for their official vehicles.
The cars, two black Toyota Sport Utility vehicles, took them out of the Presidential Villa at exactly 3:15pm.
The drama had started unfolding around 2:30pm when the Special Adviser to the President on Communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, emerged from the President’s office to notify journalists that he was going to address them at 3pm.
Adeniyi started his address by saying that he would not take any questions after reading a prepared text.
Then came the news that the President had accepted the ministers’ ‘voluntary resignation,’ following charges that they subverted his directive on the return of unspent Budget 2007 funds to the treasury.
Adeniyi added that the President had ordered the suspension of 11 top civil servants in the ministry.
He disclosed that Yar’Adua had directed the Head of Service, Mrs. Ebele Okeke, to suspend the Permanent Secretary in the health Ministry, Prof. Simon Ogamdi, and the Director of Administration, Dr. D.H. Oyedepo.
According to Adeniyi, the two career officers participated in “the subversion of his directive that unspent 2007 budget should be returned to the treasury.”
The President also directed the Head of Service to suspend a Chief Accountant, Abdulrahman Ambali, a Principal Administrative Officer, Mr. Donatus Iyang and eight other civil servants.
The Minister of Labour, Dr. Hassan Muhammad, is to oversee the affairs of the health ministry until further notice.
Already, some top civil servants in the ministry have been questioned by the EFCC over the misused funds.
Towards the end of 2007, Yar’Adua had ordered all ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government to return all unspent money from the 2007 budget to the federal treasury.
Previously, the norm in the ministries was to appropriate the unspent money for personal use under the ploy of ‘Christmas bonus.’
However, reports emerged that in late 2007, top officials in the Ministry of Health allegedly shared a total of N300m from the unspent 2007 budget among themselves.
The EFCC began an investigation into the allegation following a tip-off from a disgruntled member of staff who felt her bonus was less than the agreed figure.
It was reported that some top officials received as much as N40m, with the share decreasing according to rank.
Reacting to the ministers’ resignation, the National President of the Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Ladipo Adepoju, said it was unfortunate.
He described the ministers as people that were committed to repositioning the health sector in the country.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress has called on the Federal Government to prosecute Grange and Aduku as well as other officials of the minsitry involved in the scandal.
The General Secretary, NLC, Mr. John Odah, who spoke in a telephone interview with our correspondents in Abuja, said it was not enough to ask the suspects to resign.
He said, “Our disappointment with the whole process is that these people are currently cloaked in a garment of honour by reports that they had to resign voluntarily.
“We commend President Umaru Yar’Adua for getting these people out of his cabinet.
“However, for there to be transparency and accountability in the whole process, we urge that those who are found to be culpable should be given drastic treatment.”
Odah said the removal of the ministers was only the first step in the bid by the administration to prove that it meant its zero tolerance for corruption stance.
“The government must begin the process of getting the former ministers and their accomplices to account for their wrong-doing; that is the only way Nigerians can believe this government is serious about rooting out corruption,” he added.
The congress regretted that the Federal Government was slow in getting the ministers to resign, stating that, “We are appalled by what we hear is a common practice in these ministries, and mainly in the Ministry of Health.”
Reacting, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties advised the EFCC to extend its search on other ministries where officials shared unspent portions of the 2007 budget.
It said that such corrupt practice was not perpetrated in the Minsitry of Health alone, alleging that other ministries and agencies were also involved.
The National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said this in a telephone interview with our correspondent.
