The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities has dismissed claims that the commission is enmeshed in a ₦3.2billion contract scandal, describing the allegation as false, baseless and unfounded.
The denial is contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the commission’s Head of Information and Public Relations, lshaku Kigbu, who explained that the story of the contract scandal is the handiwork of those he said are enemies of the commission.
Kigbu asserted that the contracts being referred to were irregularly awarded by the former chief executive of the commission, James Lalu, after he was removed from office by President Bola Tinubu.
He explained that when Ayuba Gufwan was named as the new executive secretary of the commission by Tinubu, the commission’s management upon reviewing the contracts decided to suspend further implementation of all such contracts.
“This decision was also made to ensure compliance with the principles of transparency, fairness and merit as outlined by the Bureau of Public Procurement.
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“It is important to state that in all of these, there were no binding legal agreements whatsoever between the commission and these so-called contractors, and neither did their award letters cited in the petition constitute legally binding agreements.
“Moreso, the commission’s legal department has repeatedly said it had not signed any contractual agreements with these contractors.
“The commission has always maintained this stance and had also dared the contractor/contractors to produce a legal document indicating any binding agreement between it and the contractors.
“But curiously, for about three months now, they have been unable to produce any to justify their claims and rantings. The question is, why is it difficult for them to produce a simple legal document that is binding on the commission to prove that they sealed any contract with the commission?” the statement asked.
