On Monday, the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, defended spending N1.5 million to fuel six vehicles in her convoy on a trip to Anambra State.
The minister made the statement while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Political Today.
The revelation comes five days after her heated debate with members of the House of Representatives, who sought to know how her ministry spent unrelated funds, such as N45 million for a New Year’s party, N20 million for sanitary pads and N1.5 million on petrol.
Speaking on the live television programme on Monday, Kennedy-Ohanenye expressed surprise that lawmakers might question her over spending N1.5 million on petrol for their journey, claiming that the figure was not significant.
She said, “How many vehicles? I traveled with the staff in the bus, two security vehicles, one DSS, one police vehicle, my vehicle, the backup, and another one. About six vehicles went all the way to Anambra State for a job, and we came back. What is N1.5 million for those cars? Everybody knows how much fuel costs since I came in.
“But when I was explaining, the lawmakers wouldn’t even give me a chance to explain. They just wanted a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. How can I say yes or no without an explanation?”
The minister further elaborated on how her predecessor had approved N45 million to host 33 schools in the Federal Capital Territory for a party, providing each student with a bag worth N15,000.
She absolved herself of blame, reiterating that the budget had been approved before she took over the ministry.
“Let me start by saying that last year’s budget was not done while I was there. All the contracts were also not awarded while I was there. Most were awarded in March, and the contract money was released in May, before I arrived in August. When I came in, I heard about the contracts and reviewed some of them.
“A lot of them have not been completed to date. Only about four files were clear. The ministry had a lot of liabilities due to underfunding. So, those other people who didn’t fulfill the contracts were among those claiming their payments were not made.