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Group drags SMEDAN to EFCC, ICPC over constituency project in Kwara
An Ilorin based group, Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), has dragged the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the constituency projects of Hon Amuda Kannike, a House of Representatives member.
The group had equally petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over the skills acquisition project of the member, representing Ilorin East/Ilorin South Federal Constituency.
The Group Coordinator, Dr Alagbonsi Abdullateef said in a statement on Monday in Ilorin that the group got information from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), on the skills acquisition projects facilitated by the Reps member in his Constituency.
According to him, ENetSuD is an organisation that promotes good governance by participating in policy formation, campaigning against corruption and promoting government’s good policies.
Dr. AbdulLateef said his organization “also advocates for open leadership, protecting citizens’ rights, and evaluating/monitoring the implementation and performance of Kwara-related budgets.
“Part of our activities is to monitor how Federal and State Budgets are executed in Kwara State.
“We wrote to SMEDAN to give us details of how it executed the Skill Acquisition, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Training Constituency Projects facilitated by Hon. Abubakar Amuda-Kannike representing Ilorin East and South in the National Assembly,” Abdullateef said.
He said from SMEDAN’s response, the entrepreneurship development training for 120 participants in Ilorin East/South Federal Constituency was contracted to Abilele Industries Limited.
According to him, the contract sum of N16, 606, 000 and was reported to be 100 percent completed.
Abdullateef said skill acquisition training for another 40 participants in the Constituency was contracted to Dile Nigeria Limited at the sum of N17, 480, 000.
He said the third project was for the training of 95 youths for enterprise support service in Ilorin East/South Federal Constituency and was awarded to Alhambra Global Service Limited for the sum of N5, 768,400.
Abdullateef added that all the three projects were said to be 100 per cent executed.
He however said that from the lists provided by SMEDAN, the names of the 120 participants for the Entrepreneurship training were fraudulently written and signed by a single individual.
“The handwritings are the same; the phone numbers provided were owned by the beneficiaries; and some of the beneficiaries that we called out rightly denied any participation in such training.
“The Skill acquisition training beneficiaries (that answered our calls) denied any previous participation in such training; the phone numbers of all the 40 beneficiaries did not correlate with the records available on Truecaller.
“Most of the beneficiaries’ names appeared to be of Yoruba tribe, but our communication with them through phone calls revealed that most are of Hausa tribe, in addition to the fact that some claimed not to have ever been to Ilorin,” the Coordinator added.
He however said the Enterprise training beneficiaries’ phone numbers were owned by them.
According to him, random calls to sampled beneficiaries confirmed that they were trained for two weeks in Ilorin, and they were as much as the number provided to us by SMEDAN.
He added that when contacted, the facilitator of the skill acquisition, Hon Amuda-Kannike said the beneficiaries were truly trained in Ilorin, adding that he has his own list, but refused to provide it.
Abdullateef quoted Amuda-Kannike as saying that it was only SMEDAN, the project executing Agency that has the singular authority to provide details of the beneficiaries.
He also said that two of the companies that trained the beneficiaries validated the fraudulent lists provided by SMEDAN as they could not provide contrary list.
“We did not contact Alhambra Global Services Limited because the beneficiaries of its Enterprise training already confirmed the authenticity of the list given to us by SMEDAN,” he added.
“We have conclusively found that the beneficiaries list of the Entrepreneurship and Skill Acquisition training projects that gulped thirty-four million naira provided to us by SMEDAN were FAKE.
“This is because the beneficiaries contained in the list of the Entrepreneurship and Skill acquisition trainings denied any participation in such.
“The names provided as the beneficiaries of the Skill acquisition training did not correspond with the phone numbers.
“Moreover, the names, types of training, address, phone numbers, and signature of all the 120 beneficiaries for the Entrepreneurship training were written by a single individual.
“It is our hope that our Petitions received by EFCC, ICPC and IG of Police will be treated accordingly,” Abullateef added.
In his response sent to the Coordinator of the group, Hon Amuda-Kannike dissociated himself from the handwritten list of the 120 beneficiaries of the Entrepreneurship training.
The Special Assistant on Media to Hon Amuda-Kannike, Akinboyowa Ayodeji who signed the response added that the list was not generated by Dr Amuda-Kannike and was not presented by the Reps member to the consultants or to SMEDAN.
“It is also out of sync of our standard operational procedures to communicate our official correspondence in handwritten format.
“In addition, our mode of communicating list of beneficiaries to SMEDAN consultants does not require a signature column, as this submission naturally precedes the training. Required are the names of beneficiaries and their contact numbers.
“As reiterated to the ENetSuD coordinator by the Honourable, we have our authentic list of beneficiaries.
“As regards the attached list of the 40 beneficiaries for the Skill Acquisition Training, we hereby state that all 40 names are our constituents who participated in the said program.
“However, the contact numbers that were attached to these names do not correspond with the contact numbers in our records.
“While we acknowledge the names as those of our constituents that benefitted from the said training, we totally dissociate ourself from the contact numbers associated with the names as indicated in the ENetSuD publication.
Since there were no issues raised against the Enterprise Training, there is no need for any further response,” Akinboyowa added.
The SA however said the Hon Reps member always operated a functional constituency office since the inception of his tenure to date.
“Hon. Dr. Abubakar Amuda-Kannike has done his best to truly represent his people as their voice in the 8th National Assembly.
“He has also facilitated various projects and programs for the benefit of his constituents,” Akinboyowa added.
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