Not being a director or signatory doesn’t mean not being a beneficiary – Aisha Yesufu blasts Interior Minister

A renowned human rights activist, Comrade Aisha Yesufu, has berated the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, over contract scandal involving the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and a company the Interior Minster has a stake.

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in a media interaction on Channels Television, dissociated himself from the contract scam, saying: ‘I am not a signatory to the company.”

File photo of Aisha Yesufu

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, while responding to the contract allegations linked with his former company and the ministry of humanitarian affairs, admitted that he founded the company with his wife and was a director.

Tunji-Ojo stated that he resigned from the company when he joined partisan politics, but remained a shareholder. He argued that the law does not forbid political office holders from holding shares in business.

Aisha Yesufu, chiding the minister, noted that “conflict of interest doesn’t just end with the ministry he is heading.
“Otherwise, everyone will send to the next agency.”

She, therefore, declared: “Not being a director or signatory doesn’t mean not being a beneficiary.”

Tunji-Ojo, citing the Code of Conduct regulations, did not consider “influencing” contract for his wife’s company an infraction, essentially, when he has vested interest as share holding in the company.

Aisha Yesufu in a statement declared:

Aisha Yesufu

@AishaYesufu

“There is a reason why they go to Channel!

“I don’t understand how the question of this being a family business getting contract from a ‘sister’ ministry is not what is on the table.

“Conflict of interest doesn’t just end with the ministry he is heading. Otherwise, everyone will send to the next agency.

“Not being a director or signatory doesn’t mean not being a beneficiary.”

Channels TV had highlighted the statement of the Interior Minister thus:

Channels Television
@channelstv

‘I am not a signatory to the company’, Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo responds to the contract allegations linked with his former company and the ministry of humanitarian affairs.”