Gerald Frank Nigeria Limited, a contractor, is accused of failing to disburse the N5 million allocated to the firm in February 2020 for the empowerment of women in the Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta/Oru West Federal Constituency in Imo State, which is now represented by Uju Kingsley.
The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, led by Stephen Obi, paid a visit to the Mgbrichi Community impacted region on Saturday to see if the empowerment money had been given to the women.
The women, however, claimed that the contractor just took their names and account numbers and had not deposited any funds into their accounts, despite the fact that they had spent their money to sponsor themselves to the poultry course.
The women stated they were only given N1000 each for the one-week course, according to a list made available to Vanguard by Gerald Franks contact person, Donatus Nkwocha, which counted 40 women, including widows. They also claimed to have paid a training fee of between N2000 and N5000 to the poultry farm where they were trained.
Additionally, Nkwocha has stated that Gerald Frank only paid him N40,000 to deliver to the women, which he did.
“The only money he gave me was N40,000 to give to the women who were selected for the training. He directed me to give them each N1000 within the period they were on the training. I gave them the money. I collected the money in 2 batches, N20,000 for 20 people and another N20,000 for another 20 women. Apart from this amount he did not give me any other money,” he said.
Ijeoma Iwezuo, N5000, Obiukwu Chidimma, N3000O Olerudu Magret, N3000, Echereodor Oluchi, N5000, and Amado Maureen, N2000 are among the ladies who told Vanguard how much they paid as a training fee to the chicken farm.
The contract was awarded “On 24 February 2020, the contract sum, 23,610,300.00. The amount was released in installment on 19/09/2020, N3,541,545.00, on 23/09/2020, N1,458,455.00. The contractor, Gerald Frank Nigeria Limited, was contracted for a skills acquisition/training program in Poultry/Feeds for selected women of Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta/Oru West Federal Constituency in Imo State. It was an initiative by the member representing the constituency, Honourable Kingsley Uju,” according to the ICPC.
When Gerald Frank Nigeria Limited, the contractor, was contacted, he said, “This contract is N25 million. There is what is called the bill of quantity. You follow it based on the money that was given to you. A contract of N24 million and you brought N4 million, there are things that should be done first. So, what I want you to understand is that ‘given money comes later.
“For instance, when you get an award for a contract you do stamp duty, I paid N200,000 for that and that is part of the contract and the money is part of the contract. So what I want to tell you is that the stage for given out money has not reached,” he said.
