Lagos deputy governor denies receiving N2b for fans, others

Office of the Lagos State Deputy Governor, yesterday debunked the reports that it got N2 billion for the supply of fans, rechargeable lights and fridges, disclosing it has only received N2 million.

The Guardian had on Monday quoted Action Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate in the last election, Funso Doherty that the Deputy Governor, Dr. Kadri Hamzat got N2 billion for the supply of fans, rechargeable light and fridges, while his wife got N30 million monthly for outreach to indigent Lagosians.

However, Hamzat claimed that his wife got only N2.5m each for her monthly outreach to indigents and empowerment programme as against the N30m reported by Doherty.

An internal memo dated November 20 from the office of the deputy governor, and addressed to the Director General, Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, faulted the claims.

The memo signed by Director, Finance and Account, Tola Ekemode on behalf the Permanent Secretary in the office of the Deputy Governor described the procurement agency’s claim as total misrepresentation of facts.

He, however, urged the agency to take prompt action in addressing the issue by giving the general public a true account of what was approved for the Office of the Deputy Governor.

The memo addressed to PPA reads: “According to the memo, the Office of the Deputy Governor was reported to have awarded the sum of N2,017,840,000 for the provision of supply items (rechargeable fans, rechargeable lights and fridges).

“It was also reported that the office spent N30,000,000 monthly for outreach to indigents by the Wife of the Deputy Governor and same about for monthly empowerment programme by the Wife of the Deputy Governor.

“The Office of the Deputy Governor wishes to state in unequivocal terms, for your immediate action and the attention of millions of readers that the report is untrue, mischievous, fake and unfounded.”

The Office said it was compelled to write this letter due to the inaccuracies it conveyed; as the story was completely different and not a true reflection of what it has in its records.

“Also, we would not allow some individual(s) and journalists with mischievous inclination to bring the personality and name of the Deputy Governor, his wife and the office to disrepute.

“It is important to state that truly, the office did get approval and awarded the provision of supply items (rechargeable fans, rechargeable lights and fridges) for the sum of N2,017,840 (Two Million, Seventeen Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty Naira) as against the N2,017,840,000 (Two Billion, Seventeen Million, Eight Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira as reported by Doherty in his purported letter,” it added.

The office stated that the report that the office through the Wife of the Deputy Governor spent N30,000,000 monthly for outreach to indigents was inaccurate as the amount stated covered the whole year.

“It is N2,500,000 per month. Same for the Empowerment programme by the Wife of the Deputy Governor, which is also N2,500,000 per month as against N30,000,000 monthly reported.