Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sul, has revealed that 349 non-existent public primary schools were included in the scheme for which money was disbursed and pocketed by officials.
Governor Sule who made this known when he hosted the newly constituted members of the enumeration committee of the school feeding programme in Lafia, the state capital, said officials of the programme listed over three hundred non-existent public primary schools in the programme and diverted the funds to their personal use.
Appealing to the officials to exhibit the fear of God in the course of discharging their duty, the governor told them to stop misappropriating funds meant to feed poor children in public primary schools in the state.
Domiciled in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is one of the National Social Investment Programmes initiated by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2016 .
It is a key component of its intervention in primary school education in Nigeria through providing one meal per pupil in selected public primary schools to encourage school enrolment and improve pupils’ general wellbeing.
The governor warned that any member of the programme in the state who joined the bandwagon of diverting funds meant for the exercise would pay for it.
Governor Sule said their action denied the real schools from being captured in the programme