A pressure group known as “One to One Campaign movement for Tinubu and Dikko, 2023-2027”, on Sunday in katsina, called for the reinstatement of Halima Shehu as the National Coordinator of National Social Investment Programme Agency(N-SIPA).
President Bola Tinubu in January, suspended Halima Shehu as the chief executive officer of the agency over alleged financial malfeasance.
The group however addressed a press conference in katsina on Sunday where it vouched for her characters and professional competence.
The group maintained that Halima Shehu’s current travails were borne out of her enviable antecedents and transparency.
The Katsina State Coordinator of the group, Kabir Rimi who read a prepared statement at the press conference declared “The leadership of the above named political body was flabbergasted by some groundless 44 Billion Naira financial allegation against our role model which was behind the suspension of the tested and trusted leader in person of Hajia Halima Shehu Kafin Dangi, the National Coordinator NSIPA by President Bola Ahmad Tinubu GCFR.
“Mrs. Halima Shehu is a well trained professional in financial transactions as she had worked as the head of several banking units, including the cash, funds transfer, clearing, reconciliation, operations and coordination units; across three banks and left with ZERO record of corruption throughout her banking career. She had also served actively as a member of the Katsina State Internal Revenue Board with all her job records cleaned and recommended. Additionally, due to her trustworthiness and dedication in her previous services; In 2016, she was appointed by the Economic Community of West African Countries where she temporarily worked as a presidential election observer in Cape Verde.
“Certainly, the focused and principled leader (Mrs.Halima Shehu) had worked at the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, from 2017 to 2022 and completed her assignments with zero allegation of any form of financial misconduct. She also worked as the National Coordinator, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in the ministry, where she had used her banking and career expertise by way of making the programme beneficial to almost 2 million Nigerian households (over 10.2millon people) across the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory and also in 613 Local Governments in Nigeria.
Moreover, during her coordination in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Mrs Halima Shehu fully digitized the Programme by phasing out physical cash payments and opening 2 million accounts for the beneficiaries across Commercial, Micro-Finance Banks and Payment Service Providers PSPs, Distributing Debit Cards and taking the beneficiaries through Financial Literacy Training in their Local language(s). This drastically tackled all forms of corruption, strengthened the accountability and transparency process of the program and made it the biggest Financial Inclusion Program not only in Nigeria but in West Africa.
“That as the investigation is underway by EFCC, we are very much sure Mrs. Halima Shehu will be exonorated from all the financial allegations as innocent Nigerian.
“That we plea with Mr. President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR to kindly consider Mrs. Halima Shehu’s reputable job records, experiences and achievements to kindly upgrade her appointment as substantive Minister of Humanitarian Affairs for accountability & transparency in discharge of responsibilities in the ministry.
“That we appeal to Mr. President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reinstate Mrs. Halima Shehu as the National Coordinator of NSIPA because Nigerians especially less privileged and vulnerable need her the most at this material time.”
The group maintained that Halima Shehu “is a true patriotic, kindhearted, trustworthy, magnanimous, innovative, loyal, principled and hardworking leader who makes sacrifices for the betterment of the good people of Katsina State, Northern Nigeria and Nigeria as a whole.”