The Minister Of Women Affairs and Social Development, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has replied to allegations of fraud made by Kalifah Obgara, asserting that her focus is on her job, and has refused to steal for anyone.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS Wednesday night, the minister affirmed that she has refused to entertainment any distractions and has chosen to focus on her job.
Prior to this interview, the Chairman of House Of Representatives on Women Affairs And Social Development, Kalifah Obgara, stated on ARISE News that the minister had been petitioned and invited by the committee to explain the alleged misappropriation of funds in the ministry.
In response to these allegations, Ohanenye revealed that she has not seen any petitions made against her.
She said, “I haven’t seen any petition and even if there are petitions, investigations are supposed to be carried out. While investigation are being carried out, is someone supposed to come on TV to talk about it?”
Ohanenye clarified that if she had been called in for any investigation she would have shown up, but she hasn’t been called in for investigations personally.
She expressed that the allegations made against her werr “shocking,” and “the issue of women not supporting women must end.”
The minister revealed that she has not explained her side of the story before the Oversight Committee because she has “nothing to explain especially if they were investigating anything. Everybody is termed not guilty until they’re found guilty. They’ve not called me to answer anything.”
Further speaking on the issue, she said, “they went to the accounts to find out whether a certain amount had been paid.
“When they got papers from accounts, the papers they found had a lot of discrepancies. The paper said they paid some other companies, people they were owing 50million they paid 80million but it wasn’t on me, it was on the issue of unraveling the things concerning the constituency project which i have never been involved in.”
She continued that Obgara “doesn’t have any right to say what she said on air. But I will not fight my fellow woman, what I will do is I will make sure she realises that the narrative has changed and she has to join the wagon. The new narrative is that we women should focus on how we uplift ourselves.”
Reiterating her innocence once more, she said her focus is on her job and she isn’t ready “to steal for anybody and go to jail. I want to concentrate on my job and I will not accept any distractions.”
Nancy Mbamalu
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