The Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire

The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs) has described reports in a section of the media that it was queried over N26.9 billion  COVID-19 related procurement during a budget defence session at the House of Representatives last Tuesday as false.

In a statement on Thursday, OSSAP-SDGs insisted that it was not queried over its budgetary allocation by the House during the budget defence or by any other agency of Government at any time over award of N26.9Bn worth of contracts for COVID-19 related procurement.

It also added that the Office did not award any COVID-19 contract and as such, could not have been queried over what never existed.

It therefore described the stories as fake news and a figment of the imagination of the author.

“The Office also wishes to state that projects implementation by the Office are subject to release of funds.

“It is in common place that the sterling performance of the Office has continued to attract applause from stakeholders for some of the landmark projects executed by the Office.

“We therefore wish to state that the report of alleged queries by Members of the National Assembly is fake news, totally untrue, malicious and deliberate twisting of fact by characters that are not happy with the sterling performance of the Office and aimed at tarnishing the good image of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire and OSSAP-SDGs.

“This is condemnable and falls below acceptable standard in journalism,” OSSAP-SDGs said in the statement.