Obafemi Hamzat, the deputy governor of Lagos State, has spoken out about the purported N2 billion that was released and allocated for office supplies including fridges, lights, and rechargeable fans.
Hamzat said he had only received N2 million for the project in a memo sent on Monday to the director general of the procurement agency.
In addition, Hamzat stated that his spouse received N2.5 million each month for their empowerment and outreach to the impoverished, as opposed to the N30 million the organization had taken in.
In a memo addressed to the permanent secretary in the deputy governor’s office and signed by Tola Ekemode, director of finance and accounts, Hamzat claimed the agency’s report was false, nefarious, phony, and unsubstantiated.
“It is imperative to clarify that, in actuality, the office obtained authorization and granted the supply of items (rechargeable fans, lights, and refrigerators) for the total amount of =N=2,017,840 (Two Million, Seventeen Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty Naira) instead of the =N=2,017,840,000 (Two Billion, Seventeen Million, Eight Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira) as stated by Doherty in his alleged letter,” the memo stated.
Furthermore, the claim alleging that the office, through the Deputy Governor’s wife, spent =N=30,000,000 per month on outreach to the impoverished is untrue because the sum mentioned encompassed the entire year. =N= 2,500,000 is the monthly amount. The same is true for the Deputy Governor’s wife’s empowerment initiative, which likewise reports =N=2,500,000 monthly as opposed to =N=30,000,000.
Hamzat asked the organization to rectify the situation as soon as possible by providing the public with an accurate summary of what was approved.
For your urgent attention and the benefit of millions of readers, the Office of the Deputy Governor would like to make it clear that this information is false, deceptive, fraudulent, and without merit.
Because of the false information it presented—the narrative was entirely false and did not accurately reflect the information we have in our records—we are forced to write this letter. Additionally, we would not permit any person or group, including journalists with a cunning streak, to bring the deputy governor, his wife, and the office’s name and reputation into shame, he declared.
