Politics
Amnesty office justifies awarding N88m to empower 22 N’Delta youths
Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has justified the award of an N88 million contract to empower 22 Niger Delta youths in barbing and beauty salon business, stating that it has not breached any public procurement law.
In a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, Special Assistant on Media to the Coordinator, PAP, Murphy Ganagana, explained that the contract was in line with providing human capital development and skills acquisition for beneficiaries of the Programme.
According to him, the cost included provision of refresher and entrepreneurial course to beneficiaries for effective management of their businesses; land acquisition or shop rent for use by the beneficiaries.
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Other cost are business name registration, tax papers, account opening and branding; provision of mentorship and comprehensive documentation of empowered beneficiaries.
He said: “We wish to state that the contract was awarded in line with due process and the company, Tovo Vicks Nigeria Ent. Limited is duly registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, with RC 1150012.
“Therefore, Prof. Charles Dokubo did no wrong by awarding the contract in furtherance of the mandate of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. However, it should be noted that implementation of the contract is yet to commence.
“This clarification has become necessary in view of the post of a bromide of the contract award letter in the social media thereby causing opprobrious remarks from undiscerning members of the public.
“It is no longer business as usual as pocketing funds meant for the training and empowerment of beneficiaries of the Programme has been effectively checkmated.”
Ganagana revealed that the N88 million contract sum for 22 beneficiaries was based on a business set-up template of N4 million per beneficiary.
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