Senator Umaru chides media report, says ‘I did not embezzle N50million For renovation of Schools’
Senator David Umaru has blatantly refuted claims by an Online Media that he embezzled the sum of N50million meant for the renovation of some schools in his constituency in 2018.
The immediate past Senator who represented Niger East Senatorial District in Niger state reacted to a media report over the weekend that he shortchanged his constituency during his tenure in office.
He described the report as completely false and misleading; a calculated attempt to embarrass and tarnish his good image.
Umaru pointed out that contrary to the report that he embezzled money meant for the renovation of eight blocks of three classrooms in some local government areas of Niger East Senatorial District, he successfully carried out renovation of schools beyond budgetary provisions because of his love for education of youths in his constituency.
While disassociating himself from any financial scam while in office, the former Senator said “when it comes to constituency projects execution, no senator since democracy in 1999 has done what I did for my people in terms of constituency projects, especially in the area of intervention in education.
“I have been struggling not to respond to this “funny journalism” with no iota of professionalism, because this publication was done without due regards to research or investigation. It is a paid Job meant to tarnish my image.
“However, I made bold to say that when it comes to constituency projects, you can hardly find a senator in the state that has done what I did during my time as a senator.
“Specifically I have taken constituency projects quite seriously during my time as a senator and in fact in most cases I go beyond the budgetary provision to ensure that such projects are completed”.
Furthermore, he disclosed that “while the publication alleged N50million was released for these schools renovation projects, the actual amount earmarked for the renovation work was N30million.
“Out of this amount, only 70 percent was released. Usually, when provisions are made in the budget, it is not the whole amount that is released to the supervisory Agency. Usually, it is 70 percent but in this particular case 70 percent was released but the work I did was 95 percent completed.
“That is why I found this publication so funny. The projects are there and very visible across the seven local government areas for everybody to see”.
Senator Umaru maintained that the renovation of these schools is just one out of his numerous interventions in the area of education in his constituency during his tenure in office, stressing that other interventions include the sponsorship of 10 law students annually with full scholarship paid.
In addition, he said “I have 77 undergraduate students across Universities in Nigeria with full scholarship and all their tuition fees paid. I also have 66 secondary students across unity schools in the country with full scholarships and Many other interventions”.
“It is very funny for someone to allege that I embezzled N50million meant for the renovation of schools. I didn’t go to the Senate to be rich, that was not my intention, I went there to serve my people which I did to the best of my ability.
“I can say it boldly that I did credibly well as a Senator representing Niger East Senatorial District, so I see this publication as a paid job to rubbish me”.
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