An governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, Sir Paul Chukwuma, has described the $374, 000 TETFUND fraud allegations against him as the handiwork of those who want to tarnish his integrity because he is aspiring to govern the state.
He told newsmen in his Umueri, Anambra East local government area country home yesterday that the nation’s anti-graft agency, ICPC has all the facts concerning the TETFUND project as executed by his company, and, argued that the story published about the alleged fraud by an online platform wherein he was indicted could not have come from the ICPC as claimed in the publication.
He, stated that in any event it is proven that the online platform report emanated from the ICPC , it therefore shows that someone within the agency had been bought over to tarnish his integrity, and, vowed that he would stop at “nothing to fight back”.
Chukwuma rather insisted that the money was legitimately earned by him through his company in a contract with the federal government and argued that nobody had the powers to stop him from spending money earned legitimately.
“The money is in the company’s account which was legitimately earned and I don’t want to believe that Sahara Reporters published that story and all the documents that has to do with the contract are in the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC “
“There is a decide case at the Court in Solomon vs Solomon and the court ruled that there is a difference between the name of the company from the owner of the company and you cannot drag me into the issue because there is a difference between me and my company “
“This is just an attempt by political opponents to intimidated me from my ambition to serve my state as the governor of Anambra and because they have come to understand that I am the candidate to beat so they come up with all manner of allegations because there is an election this year”
Narrating the story concerning the contract in question, the APC guber hopeful said “A project was given to my company for the training and it is an Intellectual Property Right and we had meetings with the Tet Found to deliver to Nigerian students and my local company built the data base and Tet Found would buy the details to deliver to the students “
“The number was two million data but it was later made two million five hundred thousand and it is the duty and responsibility of the institutions to consume it and some did while some did not and it is not the duty of my company to start looking for those institutions that did not “
“The number was 502 staff to be trained in the six geopolitical zones in the country and over 400 staff took part yet we carried out another training for those that did not show up before which the ICPC is aware of that so it is the hand work of political detractors to run me down but I cannot be cowed by them because I shall win the ticket of my party and ultimately win the main election and nobody can stop , intimidated or cow me because my records are clear and I pay my taxes and have nothing to hide “ he said.
Chukwuma described the declaration of Prince C. N. Ukachukwu in the race for the APC ticket, and, others from other political parties to the party as a clear testament that APC has been properly rebranded in the state, and, therefore has the capacity to win the coming governorship election.
Though he said he was sure to secure the backing of the APC stakeholders across all levels to fly the ticket, he, however, said that if God decided at the end of the day that it would be another person, he would support such a candidate in the spirit of a bonafide party loyalist.
He insisted, however, that he was committed to winning the governorship election to enable him to change the ugly face the state is currently wearing.
