Indictment: Audit Report On Works, Housing Ministry Not About Me — Umahi

The Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi, has denied being indicted by an audit report on the defunct Ministry of Works and Housing activities.

Umahi, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Barr Orji Uchenna Orji, said it was insensible to associate him with an audit report about the ministry four years before he came on board.

He said the publication, sponsored and circulated on social media platforms, was intentional and fraudulent. He mischievously misrepresented the report of the Auditor-General of the Federation, “which was said to have investigated the financial management of the then Federal Ministry of Works and Housing between the period of 2020 and 2021 financial year and indicted the Housing Sector of the Ministry of financial mismanagement and unauthorised expenditure totalling N4.64 billion.”

He said the publication was sponsored to undermine public perception of the modest efforts of the Federal Ministry of Works under the Renewed Hope administration.

He said: “While we know the intention of these detractors, we are surprised that they could be so petty as to brazenly and unconscionably put the picture and the name of the serving Honourable Minister of Works, Sen Engr Nweze David Umahi on the caption of their publication to create an impression to the gullible and unsuspecting readers that the person referred to was the serving Honourable Minister of Works.”

The statement clarified that the investigation was said to have been made into the Ministry’s financial management under the previous administration rather than under the Renewed Hope administration.

“By Indeed, we are surprised at the desperation of the publication’s sponsors and their paid jobbers who intend to distract the Minister or sully his hard-earned reputation for insisting on best practices and value for money in the works sector.

“The activities of these desperate detractors are well known, but let them be assured that there is no going back in the determination of the Honourable Minister of Works in rejigging the works sector and free it from the whims and caprices of cartels who have for years held back the wheel of progress of the Ministry in giving Nigeria a cost-effective and enduring road infrastructure”.

He added that the Minister of Works, Engr. Umahi’s track records and antecedents are in the public domain.

“He can not be blackmailed by the antics of those who want the old order in the works sector to continue. He is focused and battle-ready against the giant inhibitors of progress in the works sector,” he said.

He, therefore, urged members of the public to disregard the false impression created by the publication.