Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the minister of Interior, has refuted allegations of his involvement with New Planet Project Limited, a company that secured a consultancy contract from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday evening, Tunji-Ojo clarified that he resigned as a director of the company nearly five years ago, on February 1, 2019, well before his appointment as the Minister of Interior by President Bola Tinubu.
“Almost five years ago I resigned as director of the company, so I’m not a director. I resigned on 1st of February, 2019, you can go to the back,” he said.
While admitting to founding the company alongside his wife, the minister said his resignation from the firm was due to his political ambition.
The company, registered in 2009, predates his tenure as a House of Representatives member for Akoko North-East/Akoko North-West federal constituency in Ondo state from 2019 to 2023.
The minister’s name surfaced in the crisis involving the suspended minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, who faced scrutiny over leaked documents suggesting questionable financial requests and approvals.
She made an “illegal request” to transfer N585 million to a private bank account and approved flight fares for her ministry staff to Kogi state which has no airport.
Edu defended her actions, citing due process, but Oluwatoyin Madein, the accountant-general of the federation, stated that such fund transfers to private accounts were unacceptable.
The controversy unfolded after the suspension of Halima Shehu, the CEO of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), by President Bola Tinubu. Edu claimed the leaked documents were aimed at blackmailing her for exposing corruption within NSIPA.
