The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Usman Yusuf

  • Alleged fraud: Court remands ex-NHIS boss Yusuf in prison

    Alleged fraud: Court remands ex-NHIS boss Yusuf in prison

    A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Kuje has ordered the remand of a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Usman Yusuf, in prison, pending the determination of his bail application.

    Justice Chinyere Nwecheonwu issued the order yesterday after Yusuf was arraigned and he pleaded not guilty to five-count charge bordering on fraud which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed against him.

    After his plea was taken, his lawyer, O. I. Habeeb, urged the court to allow his client to remain in the custody of the EFCC (from where he was brought to court) pending the hearing and determination of his bail application.

    Read Also: CBN extends FX market access for BDCs to May 2025

    Justice Nwecheonwu rejected the defence lawyer’s request, saying the defendant could not be kept in the commission’s custody after his arraignment.

    She ordered that Yusuf be remanded in Kuje prison in Abuja and adjourned till February 12 for the hearing of the defendant’s bail application.

    In the charge, the EFCC accused Yusuf of allegedly using his position at the time to confer undue advantage to himself by approving the purchase of a vehicle at the cost of N49,197,750, against the budgeted sum of N30,000,000.

  • JUST IN: Court remands ex-NHIS boss Yusuf in prison over alleged fraud

    JUST IN: Court remands ex-NHIS boss Yusuf in prison over alleged fraud

    A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Kuje has ordered the remand of a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Usman Yusuf in Kuje prison pending the determination of his bail application.

    Justice Chinyere Nwecheonwu issued the order on Monday after Yusuf was arraigned and he pleaded not guilty to a five-count charge bordering on fraud, brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Shortly after his plea was taken, his lawyer, O.I Habeeb urged the court to allow his client to remain in the custody of the EFCC (from where he was brought to court) pending the hearing and determination of his bail application.

    Read Also: Police smash newborn theft, sale syndicate, arrest eight suspects

    Justice Nwecheonwu rejected the defence lawyer’s request, noting that the defendant could not be kept in the custody of the EFCC after his arraignment.

    She proceeded to order that Yusuf be remanded at the Kuje prison in Abuja and adjourned till February 12 for the hearing of the defendant’s bail application.

    In the charge, the EFCC accused Yusuf of allegedly using his position at the time to confer an undue advantage to himself by approving the purchase of a vehicle at the cost of N49,197,750, against the budgeted sum of N30,000,000.

    The EFCC equally accused him of retaining a private interest in GK Kanki Foundation, and without due process, awarding a contract in the sum of N10.1 million in favour of the foundation, for the purported training of 90 persons — when the actual number of trainees was 45.

  • NHIS, NCDC get new CEOs

    Finally, President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a new Executive Secretary for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

    He is Prof Mohammed Sambo. He takes over from the suspended from the Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf. 

    The President has also dissolved the board of the scheme. In the absence of the board, the permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health has been directed to exercise full powers of the Council pending the constitution of a new Board.

     Buhari also approved the appointment of Dr Chikwe Andrea Ihekweazu as Director –General (DG) of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

    According to a statement signed by the Director, Media and Publicity, Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola, the appointment is in line  with the provisions of section 11(1)(3) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control(Establishment) Act, 2018.

    The statement noted that the appointment of the new Executive Secretary was as a result of the recommendations by the Independent fact finding panel.

    The implementation of the report of the panel is coming about seven minths after the panel turned in its report.

    The terse statement announcing the new appointment reads: ” Following the recommendations of report by an Independent Fact Finding Panel on National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the termination of appointment of the Current Executive Secretary, who has been on administrative leave and has approved the appointment of Prof. Mohammed Nasir Sambo as the new Executive Secretary.

    Read Also: Senate wades into NHIS, NPHCDA crisis

    “Similarly, the President also approved the dissolution of the Governing Board of NHIS and directed the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health to exercise full powers of the Council pending the constitution of a new Board.

    “President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Dr. Chikwe Andreas Ihekweazu as Director –General (DG) of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).the appointment is in line  with the provisions of section 11(1)(3) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control(Establishment) Act, 2018.”

  • Growing club of the untouchables

    Impunity is akin to a demon, or shall we say, virus: it damages indiscriminately. Both the victim and perpetrator are liable to come to ruins if there is no repentance.

    Acts of impunity rankle like hell, releasing tremulous rush of maddening adrenalin down the veins and nerves of sufferers. Some instances: imagine armed robbers apprehended and handed to the police returning a few days later to exact vengeance and leash more terror on their victims.

    At rarefied levels, imagine high state officials handing their wards high level jobs for which they are not qualified; imagine governors and legislators in a state awarding themselves criminal life pensions and severance benefits. What vein-bursting impunity!

    While the law officers fraternizing with denizens of the underworld are bound to meet their comeuppance sooner, the high level official who gives his ward undue advantage has simply damaged the system deeply beyond his immediate imagination. Such is the ramifying danger of impunity on the society. But let us look at this new club.

    Two examples will suffice here, to illustrate Nigeria’s untouchable hall of fame. First and most current is the story of Prof Usman Yusuf. He is the suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health insurance Scheme (NHIS). He is the type of fellow mother used to describe as one who ‘regales in sin’. In other words, impunity seems to be his very essence.

    A black cat of numerous lives, he had defied the Health Minister, bringing him to ridicule as the Presidency rule in his favor against the Honorable Minister. In the same manner, he stared down the board of the NHIS, openly refusing to obey lawful instructions.

    Suspended after a sustained turbulence at the NHIS and a probe panel set up to find out the now murky facts of the NHIS matter, Prof Untouchable lives by his name. The current update is that though the Federal Government probe panel had recommended Prof. Yusuf’s dismissal since December 2018, he has continued to draw emoluments till today.

    As at last week April 25th, Prof. Yusuf had been paid a total of N13.8m. This comprises furniture allowance for 2019 (N9m) paid in January and salaries for five months up to April. For a man accused of serious misdemeanor, a man in suspension and a man indicted by a probe panel to get paid such huge sum, he is really Mr. Untouchable.

    But Prof. Yususf is nothing but a small fry in the devious art of impunity. He has a master in a fellow called Abdulrashid Maina (at large). This fellow accused of finagling with billions of Police Pension Fund has defied two Presidents already and still counting.

    A countdown that started under President Goodluck Jonathan has spilled over into the current presidency. If you thought a corruption-fighting President Mohammadu Buhari would bring Maina’s antics to an end, think again as Maina may have brought the Presidency to a bamboozling dilemma.

    To enact what is his current act of impunity, Maina who was wanted by the Police suddenly reappeared in his office at a higher level. But upon a heightened public opprobrium, he vanished once again like Huddini and all the forces in the world, including Interpol cannot seem to find him till date!

    No, he simply achieved national untouchability.

  • Better late than never on NHIS

    After more than one year of dithering over the retention of Usman Yusuf, a professor of medicine, as executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Muhammadu Buhari presidency has finally suspended the embattled appointee and ordered that he be investigated for alleged serial infractions that prompted protests against his leadership. The suspension order, dated October 30, 2018 and coming from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), added that a seven-man panel had been constituted to look into the allegations against him. The panel is expected to submit its report in two weeks.

    But shortly before the statement from the SGF office, Prof Yusuf, exasperated by the controversy surrounding his headship of the agency and feeling quite beleaguered, decided to seek judicial interpretation regarding the powers of the Health minister and the NHIS Governing Council to suspend him or even discipline him. The suit was registered probably a few hours before the SGF’s statement on the same issue hit the public. Even though the presidency has now stepped in, the NHIS boss is unlikely to withdraw his suit partly because in tone and logic, it seems to agree with the position of the presidency on the powers and limits of governing boards of agencies and parastatals. Prof Yusuf should have taken this judicial option much earlier, perhaps last year when he began to dispute the powers of the Health minister.

    In July 2017, acting on widespread discontent against the leadership style of Prof Yusuf, the Health minister, Isaac Adewole, a professor of medicine, had ordered the suspension of the NHIS executive secretary. The minister probably apprised the then acting president, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, with the measures he was about to take. The NHIS boss threw a tantrum at the time, but he eventually but reluctantly vacated office. In February 2018, 2018, however, the presidency summarily reinstated him without so much as seeking to carry the Health minister along. It was obvious that though the presidency was in a quandary over the weighty allegations levelled against the NHIS boss, they still believed that no one but the presidency had the power to suspend or investigate their appointee. They should have come clean and stopped pussyfooting on a matter they apparently had a clear and fixed opinion.

    The presidency could still have gone away with their hesitations and doublespeak had the NHIS boss not stoked controversy again and again after his recall. Citing serial malfeasances against him a second time, the NHIS governing council again ordered the suspension of Prof Yusuf on October 19. In a strongly worded statement, the chairperson of the council, Ifenne Enyanatu, claimed to have had the backing of the Health minister to order the suspension of Prof Yusuf for violating procurement laws and dishing out contracts without regard to extant regulations. This time, with the president around, Prof Yusuf resisted the suspension and got policemen to escort him back into his office. The situation became very messy, with insinuations flying around suggesting that the presidency’s anti-graft war was imperilled and the president himself nepotistic.

    It was partly to quieten the rage of the public that the SGF, Boss Mustapha, at a retreat late October, insisted that governing boards of federal agencies had no legal or constitutional powers to discipline erring chief executives of agencies appointed by the president. It undoubtedly sounded logical. But NHIS labour union leaders in turn argued that suspension and investigation do not amount to removal. The back and forth over who was right or wrong may explain why Prof Yusuf headed to the courts to seek judicial interpretation. However, neither the NHIS council, nor the unions, nor the Health ministry, nor yet the presidency acted fast and sensibly enough to ensure that rumours and insinuations did not muddy the waters in NHIS. In particular, until it took certain steps on October 30, 2018, the presidency also acted mala fide. It should have taken ownership of the controversy when it first broke, taken firm control of the process of finding a resolution, acknowledged the malfeasances of the NHIS boss rather than appear to defend and back him, and taken the right steps to restore sanity to the embattled agency.

    The presidency was clear where its powers started and ended, and where the authority of boards also started and ended. It did not need more than a year of confusion and hesitations to come to the point where it has now ordered Prof Yusuf’s suspension and constituted a panel to investigate the allegations against the controversial executive secretary. Prof Yusuf may be an accomplished medical practitioner with global experience, but he gave no indications whatsoever by his haughty demeanour, insensitivity to NHIS staff and matters, and insubordination and foul language, that he was a sound administrator able to command the respect and loyalty of his staff. His imperial carriage grated badly with both staff and unions, not to say with the Health ministry and NHIS governing council. Had he taken a cue from his first suspension, remedied his faults, and restored confidence in his leadership, no further controversy would have been stoked, let alone attract a second suspension. He may win his case in the courts, especially given the government’s concurring interpretation of the limited powers of presidential appointees, but it remains to be seen how he would be exculpated from the procurement breaches alleged against him, or how he could regain the confidence of the staff and unions of the NHIS.

    Regardless of the outcome of the legal action he belatedly instituted against the Health minister, Justice minister and NHIS governing council, Prof Yusuf’s reign at the NHIS has come to an inglorious and ignominious end. Neither he nor the presidency can force him on the NHIS staff and unions who view his administration scornfully. He had carried himself with pointless arrogance before the staff of the agency, and insulted his way upstairs to the Health ministry and governing council. There will be no peace in the agency should he be reinstated, for even as adamant as the Buhari presidency can sometimes be, its officials doubtless understand the futility of foisting a peevish boss on intransigent staff. They will not dare stake the battered image of the presidency on a person and on an issue that promise very little political or even economic returns.

    It was not only Prof Yusuf that mismanaged the misunderstanding; the presidency is also guilty, by its desultory response to the crisis and by its lack of surefootedness, of accentuating the disharmony in the NHIS. The presidency does not have a great track record of resolving administrative squabbles, and finds it even more difficult to put to rest lingering doubts about its capacity to handle ethnic suspicions and rivalries among Nigeria’s sometimes fiercely competing groups. Yet, in politics, an elected government must summon the adeptness to mediate group wrangling and convince a vast majority of the people that its policies and style are respectively truly altruistic and pragmatic. Nigerians did not get the impression that in tackling the NHIS controversy the presidency acted with dispatch, wisdom and fairness. They must now hope that the government’s belated step in addressing the needless NHIS crisis is sufficient to put the matter to a noble rest. The onus is always on the government to quickly right wrongs, particularly in the face of academicians in government whose administrative awkwardness puts the presidency in an embarrassing position.

  • I didn’t sue Presidency over ‘suspension’ – NHIS Chief

    National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Executive Secretary Professor Usman Yusuf on Thursday denied suing President Muhammadu Buhari or Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha over his “suspension”.

    He said he had accepted the directive to proceed on leave of absence from Monday and remains loyal to the President.

    According to him, he only went to court to seek interpretation of the NHIS Governing Council’s powers to suspend him two days before he got the letter asking him to proceed on leave of absence.

    He vowed to suspend the legal proceedings and not to interfere with the Independent Fact-Finding Panel set up by the Presidency.

    Yusuf, through his lawyer Mr Uche Val Obi (SAN), said the news that he took the Presidency to court over his purported suspension by the NHIS Governing Board was fake.

    Obi clarified that his client approached the Federal High Court through an originating summons filed on October 29, with NHIS, Minister of Health, and the Attorney-General as defendants.

    The SAN said Yusuf sought judicial interpretation and determination of questions on the propriety or otherwise of the Governing Council’s action in suspending him without Presidential approval or following due process of law.

    Obi said Yusuf also sought consequential order setting aside his suspension by the Council, including its appointment of a General Manager to act in his place during the period of the purported indefinite suspension.

    Obi said the suit was served on the defendants on October 30.

    The SAN said Yusuf received the letter from the office of the SGF on October 31 at 4.30 pm from the Minister of Health directing him to proceed on administrative leave on the President’s approval.

    “Having received the Presidential directives as conveyed in the SGF’s letter aforesaid, our client hereby confirms that he welcomes the Presidential intervention and remains obligated to fully and strictly comply with the directives.

    “He will accordingly be proceeding on administrative leave with effect from Monday, 5th November 2018 so as to give room to the Independent Fact-Finding Panel set up by the Federal Government to carry out its important task of investigating the allegations of infractions leveled against him by the Governing Council of the Scheme.

    “Similarly, our client wishes to pledge his continued loyalty to Mr. President and to fully cooperate with the incoming Overseeing Director, Mr. Ben Omogo, with whom him he has already met, and the Independent Fact-Finding Panel set up by the Presidency to deal with the matter.

    “In view of this development, to ensure that there is no interference with the work and finding of the Panel and as instructed by our client, we shall be taking prompt steps to suspend the pending legal proceedings aforesaid,” Obi said in a statement yesterday.

  • HMOs clear airs on allegation of corruption

    The Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria (HMCAN) has called on the executive secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Usman Yusuf to name and shame those health maintenance Organisations (HMOs)  who are breaching standards, or engaged in sharp practices, instead of what it described as persistent global condemnation of all HMOs by him.

    HMCAN is the umbrella interest-organisation for all HMOs in Nigeria.

    According to the Chairman, Tunde Ladele speaking in Lagos on Thursday, it is not possible that all HMOs are operating with total defaults, “as being advanced to the public by the NHIS’s Executive Secretary. As regulators, we believe NHIS has the statutory authority, the operational mandate, and instruments to enforce compliance in the industry”.

    Ladele said it is good to put the records straight on the refund of backlog of N2.1b, to NHIS, saying, “On his assumption of duty at the Scheme in 2016, Prof Yusuf without once consulting with the HMOs, till this moment, insisted vehemently that the 50 percent of this payment of this backlog to HMOs must be refunded, threatening to shut down the industry otherwise”.

    “As critical investors with huge investments in the Nigerian healthcare space, the HMOs unanimously agreed to make the refund to avoid dislocations in the industry,” said Ladele, adding, “it was therefore a business decision by the HMOs to make the refund, and not necessarily because the payment was not properly earned, an impression Prof Yusuf has labored to sell to the public”.

    Ladele added that the refunds HMOs are making to the NHIS is a sacrifice by the them to save the industry and the circumstances surrounding this need a clear understanding.

    Giving the background, Ladele said, “It was an actuarial recommendation that payments of capitation, fee-for-service and admin fee be reviewed on the average of every two years, in view of inflationary trends in the economy. However, no such review had taken place between 2005 and 2012”.

    He added, “In response to pressure from critical stakeholders, such as healthcare facilities who are risk bearers at the primary level, the review finally occurred in 2012. Consequently, capitation was increased from N550.00 to N750.00, fee-for-service from N89.00 to N112.50, while administrative fee went up from N91.00 to N129.00”.

    Read Also: Fighting corruption should not be selective — Mimiko

    Ladele said NHIS implemented this review, except for fee-for-service outstanding from 2012 to 2015, amounting to N2.1b, adding, “HMOs, being risk bearers at secondary and tertiary levels are expected to pay for services authorized at these two levels for fee-for-service as denominated and defined by NHIS. After a very long wait, fifty percent of the backlog of N2.1b was paid by NHIS to the HMOs in 2016, leaving a balance of 50 percent to date, and on his resumption at the Scheme in 2016, Prof Yusuf insisted that the 50 percent of this backlog to HMOs must be refunded, and we did,”.

    As of today, according to Ladele, all the 59 HMOs were deactivated without concrete cause, as “majorities were compliant with set criteria. We see this move as a betrayal of leadership inadequacies, poverty of administration and management skills, weak knowledge of technical issues, gross deficiencies in understanding of corporate governance and a sorry state of inability to relate well with higher authorities by Prof Yusuf,”.

    Ladele said the current bitterness and acrimony in the young industry is unnecessary and avoidable, saying, “Prof Yusuf should make himself available to answer to charges of procurement law breaches, abuse of office, and financial brigandage that are pilling against him, rather than stifle himself with this phobia for HMOs’.

  • NHIS Crisis: Presidency orders due process

    A Presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, says the presidency has stepped into the crisis rocking the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) following the purported suspension of its Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf.

    The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the Governing Council of the NHIS had on Oct. 18 suspended Yusuf over alleged gross misconduct.

    But, Yusuf resumed work on Friday, a day after his fresh suspension by the council.
    Some workers acting under the aegis of Association of Civil Servants of Nigeria, and Medical and Health Workers Union of NHIS, almost prevented him from gaining entrance to the office on Monday.

    Their colleagues of the Nigeria Civil Service Union in support of Yusuf mobilised themselves and countered the protest.

    The situation that almost degenerated into security breach was however contained with the intervention of a combined team of police, civil defence and state security operatives.

    However, the presidential aide, who featured on Channels TV Sunrise Daily on Tuesday in Abuja, said Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, and the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, had intervened in the NHIS crisis with a view to finding lasting solutions.

    Read Also: Military to militia groups: Vacate Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa

    Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, noted with regret that the NHIS crisis had been ethnicised and politicised by some interest groups within and outside the agency.

    “Did the board follow due process in suspending this gentleman? There are opinions that said `no they haven’t’.

    “Again we all have to do the right thing all of the times. I don’t deny the fact that there is a lot of work to do – (the crisis) is complicated by the fact that the whole thing about the NHIS has been ethnicised and politicised.

    “Even a political party was issuing a statement on matters that are unknown to it.

    “I’ll tell you one thing, as we speak now, you know that no matter whatever mistakes this gentleman may have made, and that is to be proven because I don’t have the records to say yes or no, he has launched a major reform in that institution which had blocked access to public resources.

    “Money from the NHIS is not money belonging to government, is money taken from your salary, from my salary.

    “If we have been enlisted, we are supposed to get treatments when we fall ill then you should ask the question in 13 years of the NHIS how many Nigerians have received the treatments.

    “Yet you have HMOs, these vendors, taking N5 billion every month, money that is just being shared and somebody came and said, `look, this can’t go on’ and with strong support from this administration the N5 billion has been reduced to N1.3 billion.

    “And even at then, the administration is not satisfied. We want to see healthcare delivered to the citizens of this country. So there is a lot of work to do,’’ he said.

    The presidential aide stated that he was not in the position to challenge the allegations of wrong doings levelled against the executive secretary in some quarters.

    Shehu, however, maintained that the two chambers of the National Assembly had previously cleared the Executive Secretary of the allegations against him.

    He also dismissed the accusation of `double standard’ by the Buhari administration while dealing with cases of corruption being levelled against public servants or political office holders in the country.

    He said it was wrong to compare the case of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, and that of the NHIS scribe.

    “Well, there is no double standard there either than to say that the pictures that the government is looking at many Nigerians perhaps may not be seeing those pictures,’’ he added.

    NAN also recalls that the minister of health (Adewole) had earlier suspended Yusuf over similar allegations on July 6, 2017.

    But the Federal Government reinstated him on Feb. 6, 2018, after an administrative panel found him not guilty of the allegations of abuse of office and maladministration.

    Yusuf officially resumed work on Feb. 8, 2018, after he was given the clean bill.

    Shehu, who also spoke extensively on the security efforts of the federal government in combating the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, said Nigeria had earned international commendations for suppressing the terrorist group.

  • PDP queries Buhari’s protection of suspended NHIS boss

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to come out clear on why he has been protective of the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Prof. Usman Yusuf.
    Yusuf, who was on Friday suspended by the Board of the NHIS, has been fingered in various alleged corrupt practices, including the alleged siphoning of over N25 billion from the coffers of the agency.
    Despite the suspension order, Yusuf reported for work on Monday and was escorted into his office by a detachment of armed policemen.

    In a statement Monday by the spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party accused the “Presidency cabal” of directly complicit in the alleged NHIS fraud and seeking every means to ensure a cover up.

    The PDP recalled that the Executive Secretary was in July 2017 suspended by the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole over alleged gross misconduct and corrupt practices.
    The party also recalled that how President Buhari, upon his return to the country from vacation in February, 2018, reinstated Prof Yusuf while he was still being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Read Also:  PDP warns against submission of unauthorized names to INEC

    The statement said, “The PDP invites Nigerians to note how the Presidency has continued to provide official cover for accused official even without the slightest investigation of the allegations and sanction by both the Minister and the Governing Council.

    “We ask: Why is the Presidency protecting an official of government openly indicted for corruption? What is the Presidency trying to conceal by ensuring that Prof. Yusuf remains the Executive Secretary after his indictment?

    “Furthermore, why is the Presidency vehemently opposed to any form of investigation on the activities of NHIS under Prof. Yakubu? Is it true that there are fears in the Presidency that an investigation will expose the alleged involvement of individuals close to the President in the reported fraud in the scheme?

    “Finally, while the PDP describes as reprehensible that an administration which prides itself as fighting corruption will continue to provide official cover for its officials indicted of corruption, the party urges Nigerians to continue to hold President Buhari responsible for the corruption in NHIS, as well as the siphoning of trillions of naira from various agencies, under his watch”.

  • Council suspends NHIS Executive Secretary indefinitely

    The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Usman Yusuf, has been suspended indefinitely by the governing council.

    The chairperson of the NHIS governing council, Ifenne Enyanatu announced the suspension at a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday after a two-day closed door meeting.

    Mallam Sadiq Abubakar has been appointed to act in his place.

    This would not be the first time that Prof. Yusuf is placed on suspension.

    In July last year, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole placed him on suspension to allow administrative investigation following a directive from the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, then Acting President. “That he (Yusuf) be investigated over many allegations of mismanagement against the Executive Secretary.”

    He was however reinstated by the president without any recourse to the suspension and the allegations in February this year.

    The latest suspension, Enyanatu argued was based on various petitions and infractions against the EX.

    Consequently, she said an administrative panel would be set up to examine allegations leveled against Mr. Yusuf.

    The panel she said, would have three months to complete it’s assignment and report back to the council.

    The reason for the suspension, she said is to allow the panel an ‘infetted’ space to do a thorough investigation.

    “We consulted and got the approval of the honorable Minister of Health before this suspension. ”

     

    Details Later…