Kennedy-Ohanenye clarifies funds received for street hawking project

Abdullateef Fowewe

Former Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye has clarified the funds paid into her accounts by certain Nigerians for a project aimed at clearing street hawking while she was in office.

Uju in an interview with Channel Television explained that the project, which targeted taking children aged 5 to 12 off the streets, was not included in her budget, prompting her to seek assistance from Nigerians.

She disclosed that the project had not commenced before she left her duties as a Minister, which led to her refunding the donors their money.

She could be heard saying, “The programs I initiated in the ministry, like the mobile court, going to rescue this small girls that are hawking on the street.

“I mean 5-year-old – 12 year old, to rescue them, take them back to school, I did not have money for that, because it wasn’t what they budgeted for, so when I called Nigerians, I was so surprised on the 15th of October, a lot of them including Chief Arthur Eze, they all gathered at the villa and they all donated money to this effect.

“They were very happy to support it, even Tony Elumelu and co, they donated a lot of money.
Unfortunately, not up to 2 weeks after the donations, I was sacked.

“So when this happened, remember they donated that money to me to help these poor people, the vulnerable, as a Minister, so there was no way I could have continued using that money, I didn’t even use it at all. I asked the secretary who was in charge to write to the bank to do a reversal of the funds.

“Everybody that donated money, Arthur Eze donated N100 million, so many other people,30 million,20 million, all their monies were paid to them, I didn’t touch a penny, I didn’t use any because I was to use it as a minister, as far as I was not a minister anymore, the best thing was to return their money.”