According to the documents shared by Mr Doherty, the office of the deputy governor also got N30 million for "monthly outreach of indigent citizens by the wife of the deputy governor."
The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, has denied that her office received more than N2 billion for the "provision of supply items (rechargeable fans, rechargeable lights and fridge)."
PREMIUM TIMES had on Sunday reported that the 2023 governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC) in Lagos, Funsho Doherty, in a post via X on Saturday wrote to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, querying some contract awards as reported by the state's procurement agency.
The Lagos State official documents referenced by Mr Doherty covered projects awarded for the second and third quarters of 2023.
According to the documents shared by Mr Doherty, the office of the deputy governor also got N30 million for "monthly outreach of indigent citizens by the wife of the deputy governor," and "Another N30,000,000 was awarded for monthly empowerment programmes of the wife of the deputy governor."
Deputy governor's office denies allocation
In response to the publication, which has continued to generate debates among Nigerians especially on social media, the deputy governor's office wrote the procurement agency, seeking clarification on information it described as "untrue, mischievous, fake and unfounded."
This newspaper exclusively obtained a copy of a letter, dated 20 November, and addressed to the office of the Director General of the procurement agency, with reference: ODG/154/T/212 and titled: "Re: Open Letter on Selected Public Procurement by LASG in the Period April to September 2023."
The letter, which was signed on behalf of the permanent secretary in the deputy governor's office by the Director of Finance and Accounts in the office, Tola Ekemode, urged the procurement agency's DG to take immediate action to clarify the matter.
The letter reads in part: "The Office of the Deputy Governor wishes to state in unequivocal terms, for your immediate action and the attention of millions of readers, that the report is untrue, mischievous, fake and unfounded."
Clarifications
The office said it was compelled to respond to the matter "due to the inaccuracies it conveyed; as the story was completely different and not a true reflection of what we have in our records."
The letter reads in part: "It is important to state that, the office did get approval and awarded the provision of supply items (rechargeable fans, rechargeable lights and fridges) for the sum of =N=2,017,840 (Two Million, Seventeen Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty Naira) and not the =N=2,017,840,000 (Two Billion, Seventeen Million, Eight Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira as reported on the website of your agency, Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Lagos MEPB Q3 Budget Performance Review referenced by the X (formerly Twitter) account.
"In addition, the report that the office through the Wife of the Deputy Governor spent =N=30,000,000 monthly for outreach to indigents is inaccurate as the amount stated covered the whole year. It is =N=2,500,000 per month. Same for the Empowerment programme by the Wife of the Deputy Governor which is also =N=2,500,000 per month and not =N=30,000,000 monthly reported."
He said the explanation given is what the deputy governor's office has in its records, adding that the approvals and the letters of award of the contracts were attached as evidence.
"Truth must be said, this is very sad and Mr. Deputy Governor has expressed his displeasure to this happening and will want your office to kindly address this by giving the public the true picture of events. These errors or inaccuracies exhibited by your data are capable of putting credibility at stake. One then wonders about the accuracies of the content on the site if the items concerning the Deputy Governor's Office can be this inaccurate. It is therefore important that you look through the data and confirm the correctness or otherwise of all the details of the report as displayed on the website," the letter added.
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Govt keeps mum
Meanwhile, more than 48 hours after Mr Doherty posted his open letter to the governor on X, the government has yet to react officially to the developments.
When contacted, an official in the office of the deputy governor said though most of the contents in the official document quoted by Mr Doherty are inaccurate, Mr Hamzat cannot react as an individual but the leader of the team, "Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu will address the matter adequately soon."
The source, who asked not to be named as he has no authorisation to speak to journalists, also denied knowledge of the memo addressed to the procurement agency, saying they were not in a position to react on such a matter.
"We know most of these things are not correct but we cannot speak. The government will react appropriately when it is ready," the source said.
