On Monday, a High Court in Abuja ordered the remand of Usman Yusuf, former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), at the Kuje Correctional Centre.
Yusuf was arraigned on a five-count amended charge bordering on alleged fraud preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The charges bordered on embezzlement, conferring undue advantage and fraud to the tune of N90,439,178.
The former NHIS Executive Secretary has been accused of using his office to confer undue advantages to himself between 2016 and 2017. He was also accused of allegedly awarding contracts without following the due procurement processes.
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The defendant pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him.
The case was adjourned until February 12.
Interestingly, Yusuf had once described the funds at NHIS as “blood money” while entertaining questions on the allegation of corruption from reporters in 2018. He went on to say he could not steal such money.
“I came in 1st of August, 2016, and I saw all this mess with NHIS, HMOs, hospitals, insurance companies,” he said.
“They were messing with our money in banks and I said ‘This is not acceptable’. Corruption will fight you back, you have to fight it.
“I asked myself questions, we are supposed to cover 180 million on the provision of healthcare? We only cover 3 million. Why? Who has been taking the money? I said this was not acceptable and anywhere you hear that people are after a chief executive, it’s because we are not allowing things to happen as before.
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“If I want to steal money, NHIS money is not what I am going to steal, it’s blood money.”
Yusuf further added that while so many people had been feasting on “blood money”, he chose to be a “good custodian of it”.
“I have told Nigerians time and again, I have a promise, not to any human being in life but to my creator… Number one, if I want to steal money, NHIS money is blood money! This money is meant to pay for the sick,” Yusuf said.
“And people have been feasting on this blood money; I said no! That is the reason why they have been fighting me. Only in Nigeria that people look at you in the face and say, “You are a thief”. Where I come from, the onus of proof is from the accuser, not the accused.”
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The executive secretary went on to tell his accusers to take the matter to the EFCC or Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) with proof.
In 2017, Yusuf was suspended by former health minister Isaac Adewole when he was accused of corrupt practices. He was subsequently reinstated by President Muhammadu Buhari on February 6, 2018.
On October 18, 2018, he was again suspended by the governing board of the NHIS and replaced by Sadiq Abubakar who went on to act as the scheme’s acting executive secretary.
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