The Coordinator, Ohaozara East Development Centre, Mrs Favour Uloma Okorie has been accused of allegedly distributing federal government-provided skill acquisition equipment as personal empowerment materials.

The allegation was made by by former member representing Ohaozara, Onicha and Ivo federal Constituency, Hon. Darlington Okereke while interacting with newsmen in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital.

Okereke maintained that the equipment was attracted during his tenure in the House of Representatives to create opportunities for skills acquisition and economic empowerment for people of the area.

According to him, the items include manual sewing machines, electric sewing machines, weaving machines, dryers, hand dryers, head washers, furniture-making machines and other equipment.

He said the equipment was supplied by the federal government in 2010 for the equipping of the Ngbom-Ugwulangwu Skill Acquisition Centre but arrived while the building was still under construction.

“I wish to put on record that the items shared as empowerment materials by the coordinator of Ohoazora east Development Center are not the property of the development centre but skill acquisition materials supplied by the federal government for the equipping of Ngubomu Ugwulangwu Skill Acquisition Center in 2010.

“This was attracted by me when I was in the House of Representatives. The materials arrived while the building was still under construction. It was warehoused in the development centre under the leadership of the Honourable Tony Nwafor.

“It is therefore surprising that instead of returning the items to the completed skill acquisition centre, where they would benefit the general number of people.

“The coordinator made the surprising decision to distribute federal government property, which was designated for a specific project, to her friends. The coordinator should return those items from those she has shared them with so that the skill acquisition centre will take off,” he queries.

The former lawmaker maintained that the Development Centre should provide its own empowerment materials from its resources rather than distributing equipment he said was procured for a specific federal government-funded skill acquisition project.

He called on relevant security agencies to intervene, investigate the matter and recover the equipment for the benefit of the people for whom the project was established.

“Ordinarily, I would have put them in my house. But I felt it was not the right thing to do. As a lawmaker, I decided to warehouse these items in the development centre. One, for security purposes. Two, for government property.

“It is not my own property, and the development centre coordinator is surprising because I had told them that what they needed to do was put burglary proof on the building so that these items would be well secured totally and paint it because the contractor didn’t finish both painting to secure these things and install this equipment for our people.

“Its for the generality of people to use to learn skills to learn trade some people who want to go into tailoring, hairdressing and all those should go there and learn this trade and it will help a good number of people from ugwulangwu it is not meant for anybody to distribute not at all If it was meant for people to distribute, I would have distributed them long ago”.

He described the alleged distribution of the equipment as a misappropriation of government property and questioned the decision to keep some of the industrial machines in the coordinator’s personal residence, insisting that such items should only be distributed if they were legitimately procured for that purpose.