APC 2027 Campaign Council Includes Controversial Betta Edu, Ngozi Olejeme — Both Facing EFCC Trials
The All Progressive Congress (APC) has released list of it’s 2027 campaign team. And two names on it have set the political arena on fire.
Betta Edu, the suspended former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs.
Ngozi Olejeme, ex-NSITF chair currently facing N1 billion money laundering charges.
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Both women, dogged for years by financial scandal probes, have been handed top roles in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidential campaign council.
—THE LIST THAT SPARKED OUTRAGE—
On Saturday, the APC unveiled its campaign machinery.
Senator Abdulaziz Yari is Director-General.
Governor Hope Uzodimma is Secretary.
But it was numbers 97 and 37 that got tongues wagging.
Betta Edu — No. 97: Director of Women’s Mobilisation.
Ngozi Olejeme — No. 37: South-South Zonal Director for Election Planning, Coordination and Mobilisation.
–‘THE BETTA EDU FILE: N585M MEMO AND A SUSPENSION—
Edu’s fall was swift and very public.
On January 8, 2024, President Tinubu suspended her after a memo leaked. In it, she asked the Accountant-General to transfer N585 million into a private account.
Tinubu ordered the EFCC to probe the entire Humanitarian Affairs Ministry.
Edu was grilled at EFCC headquarters in Abuja.
The President then shut down all NSIPA programmes for six weeks.
By April 2024, the EFCC announced it had recovered N30 billion from the ministry’s accounts and was investigating 50 bank accounts.
Five days after Nentawe Yilwatda replaced her in cabinet, the Presidency made it final.
Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said: “As far as this government is concerned, there is no longer a place for her in that cabinet.”
To date, the EFCC has not released its final report on the probe.
Yet here she is — back in the inner circle, this time mobilising women for 2027.
—THE OLEJEME FILE: WANTED, ARRAIGNED, AND NOW ZONAL DIRECTOR—
Olejeme’s case is even older — and bigger.
In September 2017, the EFCC declared her wanted over alleged N69 billion fraud: “criminal conspiracy, abuse of office, diversion of public funds and money laundering.”
Eight years later, in October 2025, she was arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja on eight counts of money laundering involving N1 billion of NSITF funds allegedly diverted between 2012 and 2015.
She pleaded not guilty.
The EFCC said it would call 14 witnesses.
Justice Emeka Nwite released her to her counsel and adjourned for bail hearing. Since then, little has been heard about the case.
Now, she’s been named to coordinate APC’s election machinery across the entire South-South.
—WHY IT MATTERS—
The inclusion of Edu and Olejeme is already triggering fierce debate inside and outside the APC.
Critics call it a slap in the face to anti-corruption.
Supporters say it’s politics — you don’t win elections with saints, you win with structures.
But with 2027 barely 18 months away, the APC has signaled it is ready to bring back even the most embattled figures if they can deliver votes.
The question now: Will the EFCC cases come back to haunt the campaign? Or will the campaign make the cases disappear?
One thing is certain — Betta Edu and Ngozi Olejeme are back in the game.
Credit: Conclave
