The Federal Government has suspended the N-Power program indefinitely.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, made this known during her appearance on a TVC news program on Saturday.
Edu noted that the decision to suspend the program was prompted by certain irregularities that have been identified within the scheme.
She further revealed that the government has initiated an investigation into the utilization of funds allocated to the program since its inception.
The Minister pointed out that there are beneficiaries who have not been fulfilling their assigned duties, yet they continue to expect monthly stipends.
Also, she mentioned that some beneficiaries were supposed to have exited the program in 2022 but are still receiving payments.
She said, “We must go back to look into N-Power and understand what the problems are so we will basically suspend the programe for now until we are done with proper investigation into the utilization of fund into the N-Power program.
“We want to know how many persons are basically on the program right now, how many persons are owed, amount they are owed. We are totally restructuring the N-Power and expanding it.
“There are lots going on. We met people who are supposed to have exited the program since last year and they are still on claiming that they are still teaching.
“Sometimes we contact the school or the places where they are working and they are not there. They are not working yet they keep claiming that they are being owed eight or nine months stipends.
“About 80 percent of them are not working yet they are claiming salaries”.