Umahi Speaks On Payment Of N9.3 Billion To Microfinance Bank

Minister of Works, David Umahi

Contrary to the news making rounds, David Umahi, the Minister of Works has said the disbursement of N9.3 billion to a microfinance bank by the Ministry was not awarded when he assumed office.

David Umahi, the Minister of Works, has refuted an internet rumor that claimed he approved the payment of N9.3 billion to a Mirco-Finance Bank for the construction of roads.

According to MON DIARIES, Umahi is accused of violating the 2007 procurement law by allegedly giving the Federal Ministry of Works permission to pay FIMS Microfinance Bank Ltd. N9.3 billion. This accusation was made by BudgIT's service delivery promotion platform, Tracka.

However, in a statement released on Saturday through Barrister Orji Uchenna Orji, his special adviser on media, the former governor of Ebonyi State referred to the report as a “malicious” work of the author's imagination.

The statement emphasizes that the funds for 62 projects were released to the bank between June and December 2023 and states that Umahi was the governor of Ebonyi State at the time the project was awarded.

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“Let me also use the opportunity to debunk something ongoing in the social media. I don't know what they call the group, is it Tracka or something?

“It is said it is monitoring the budget of the federal government. And I saw where they put my picture, a very beautiful picture, for that matter, and said that we paid 9.3bn to the microfinance bank.

“But they went ahead and tagged about the eight points something billion against some projects in Ekiti State, in Kaduna State, in Kastina State, in Boronu State, and say these payments were done between June. In June. I was in the Senate. So these projects, if they are correct, would have been awarded why I was still a governor, so not a minister

“Number two, in June I was in the Senate. In July I was in the Senate. Up to the 20th August, I was in the Senate. But there are issues when a contractor has done his or her work, the money becomes his money.

“He can say, pay it to this bank, pay it to this bank. And so they're being very mischievous. If they're asking whether the job was done, that is the only right they have.

“But they don't have the right to say where a contractor will say his money will be paid. And so whether he's paid in a microfinance bank or macro-finance bank, without prejudice to the fact that I don't have the facts about the jobs, they have no right to say it was paid into microfinance.

“Their right is to go and verify if the jobs were done. If the jobs were done, then it doesn't matter where the money was paid to. And so it's just a distraction. And then some of the contractors are using them to fight back. But I refuse to be distracted. The jobs were never awarded by me. Payments were not made by me.

“And even if they were done by me, if the jobs were done and the certificate generated and then deployed to the platform and it was appropriated and money was released against the project, then they have no right to question where it was paid to.”