The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has denied a letter requesting public donations to fight Coronavirus, as not coming from government but an attempt to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
The recent purported letter is circulating on Social Media and part of which reads thus: “DONATIONS SO FAR FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID -19 IN NIGERIA” referenced: FMF/HMF/EFCC/S-EFFE-REC/2020/1, and dated 28th March, 2020”.
According to the ministry, the purported letter mentioned names of notable Nigerians including Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Tony Elemelu, Jim Ovia, Tuface Idibia, Atiku Abubakar, NNPC, Access Bank, among others as donors.
The concluding part of the letter reads: “Please give the little you have to aid the fight against Covid-19. Nothing is too small.”
The ministry in refuting the letter said “We wish to inform all members of the public, particularly members of the social media community, that by this statement, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, and the Office of the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning disassociate themselves from the purported donations and letter. It is fake; it is a SCAM”.
The Ministry has, therefore, called on all Nigerians and the general public to disregard the letter because it is a a SCAM for it has neither put out a request for donations nor received any.
“The Ministry also wishes to warn the general public that it will not be liable for any financial transaction which may have transpired between people and scammers who have created emails or social media accounts in the name of the Ministry or principal officers of the Ministry”.
Accordingly, the Ministry wishes to advise all members of the public to desist from transacting business(es) with imposters as doing so would be at their own risk.
