The Lagos State Public Procurement Agency has responded to widespread reports surrounding the acquisition of a Bulletproof Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration, shedding light on the expenditure of N440.75 million on the luxury vehicle.<\/p>\n
The disclosure of the vehicle’s procurement details, included in the publicized contracts awarded during the second and third quarters of 2023, has ignited criticism and raised concerns about the financial decisions of the state government.<\/p>\n
The scrutiny escalated when Funso Doherty, the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Lagos, brought attention to various contracts, such as N2 billion for fans, rechargeable lights, and fridges, N18 million for chickens, and the substantial amount spent on the Bulletproof SUV designated for the Chief of Staff’s office.<\/p>\n
In response to the mounting concerns, Mr. Fatai Onafowote, the Director-General of the Public Procurement Agency, issued a statement expressing apologies for the lack of clarity and details in the procurement records posted on the agency’s website.<\/p>\n
Onafowote clarified that the procurement of the N440.75 million bulletproof vehicle was in alignment with current security realities. The statement acknowledged the misunderstandings that arose due to the absence of detailed descriptions in the project information, expressing regret for any unintended misinterpretations caused.<\/p>\n
The government emphasized the crucial need for accurate communication to prevent confusion in the public space. This clarification is particularly timely in the face of increased scrutiny over government expenditures. Recent controversial allocations, including N5.09 billion for a Presidential Yacht and N160 billion for lawmakers’ SUVs, have fueled public concerns, ultimately being signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Lagos State Public Procurement Agency has responded to widespread reports surrounding the acquisition of a Bulletproof Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration, shedding light on the expenditure of N440.75 million on the luxury vehicle. The disclosure of the vehicle’s procurement details, included in the publicized contracts awarded during the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":6470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7357"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7360,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357\/revisions\/7360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}