Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, on Tuesday dismissed the alleged approval of the establishment of Federal Polytechnic, Ughelli, Delta State. Shekarau stated this in his presentation while defending the 2015 budget of his ministry before the Senate Committee on Education.
Meanwhile, Shekarau and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Macjohn Nwaobialu, on Tuesday disagreed over the non-implementation of Millenium Development Goals projects as well as constituency projects for 2014.
While the Permanent Secretary attributed it to non-release of funds meant for MDGs and constituency projects in the ministry for last year, the minister, however, debunked the claim, saying the funds, which amounted to over N5bn, were released late.
He, however, did not explain whether the money was returned to the Ministry of Finance.
The minister also sought the exemption of staff of his ministry in the Federal Government ban on overseas training and other measures put in place to mitigate the current harsh economic realities in the country.
The minister explained that the ban would be counter-productive and present Nigeria in bad light before the international community.
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