SOML: Kwara Govt Suspends Officials Over Alleged Mismanagement Of Funds

Kwara State Government has suspended two senior officials from the Saving One Million Lives Programme for Result (SOML-PforR) to allow for probe into allegations of financial irregularities and inconsistencies in the handling of funds, a statement by Falade Gbenga Tayo, Press Secretary, Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

The suspended officials are the SOML-PforR State Programme Manager Dr Ibrahim Omar and the programme Accountant Alabi Rahman Olalekan.

The suspension, and query of the officials, is connected to the alleged mismanagement of some N170m SOML-PforR fund.

The statement said preliminary probe into the allegations revealed “some inconsistencies” and that efforts to get the officials to offer satisfactory explanations and verification were “being deliberately frustrated”.

It added that the officials were being suspended from the programme to “enhance uninterrupted investigation”, urging them to cooperate with the intra-ministerial investigative committee empanelled to look into the “financial transactions of the SOML-PforR between December 2019 and May 2021”.

The statement said the steps to sanitise the programme were in line with the transparency and accountability drive of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.