ABUJA: The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma has denied the invitation on his Facebook Wall calling on individuals and Corporate Organisations to apply for N5 Million Small and Medium Scale Business Loans, describing it as a scam.

The Ministry in a statement issued on Monday by  the Director  of Information in the ministry, Charles Dafe, warned  the general public to ignore the information since it was a clear 419 message from criminal scammers, who were dubiously defrauding unsuspecting publics, adding that the Minister did  not have an active facebook account.

‘‘The attention of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning has been drawn to a Facebook message purportedly posted by the Hon Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma on his Facebook Wall calling on individuals and Corporate Organisations to apply for N5 Million Small and Medium Scale Business Loans,’’ the statement reads.

It further advised Nigerians not to recognise any unofficial communication channel of government since Government has formal communication channels it utilizes to appropriately communicate to the Publics for policies requiring mass public participation such as announcements in Television and Radio placed advertisements in national dailies.

 ‘‘Government is intensifying effort to arrest and deal decisively with these fraudsters whom are blinded to the fact that the present administration has zero tolerance for such characters.

‘‘ The publics are hereby advised to disregard such message and be wary of the activities of 419 scammers,’’ it added.