The Abia State government has denied receiving 20 trucks of rice as palliative from the Nigerian government under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu.
According to Prince Okey Kanu, the State Commissioner for Information, no palliatives have arrived in the state, and there has been no communication from the Federal Government regarding any such assistance.
He dismissed reports that the Nigerian government had distributed 50kg bags of rice to states for sale at N40,000 as “fake news.”
The state Commissioner Prince Okey Kanu denied receiving any palliatives or communication from the Federal Government, calling reports of rice distribution at N40,000 ‘fake news’.
He said, “We didn’t see any truck of rice from the Federal Government. And the issue of selling a 50kg bag of rice for N40,000 is fake news.”
”We don’t deal with rumours and speculations. There has been a way the federal government communicates with us when it has to do with palliatives, and no such message has come from the federal government,” he said.
When asked if it wouldn’t be prudent for the government to establish communication with the federal government regarding the matter, the commissioner responded that it was not necessary to do so.
“There is no point for us to be wasting our time looking for where to verify the news. If the news was authentic, we could have gotten the message as a government straight from the federal government. No such thing happened,” he added.
The Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government recently announced that it had distributed 20 trucks of rice to each state in the country in a bid to cushion the effects of food inflation and rising general inflation.
The development had earlier however stirred controversies with two states, Edo and Adamawa coming out to deny that they received such rice.
The position was communicated by the Deputy Director of Media of the campaign organisation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 21 governorship election in the state, Rev Olu Martins.
“The Edo State government did not receive any rice from the Federal Government or Aliko Dangote Foundation. Mind you, Mr President did not mention in his speech on Sunday that rice was given to any of the states. It may be that it is still in the offing, because if he sent 20 trucks of rice to Edo State, which ministry did it go through? Which ministry or agency received it in Edo? He said this in reaction to reported claims by Adam Oshiomhole that the state government received rice from the federal government.”
Reacting to the claims, the Niger Delta Minister said the state governors were not being fair to President Bola Tinubu.
He had said, “I think any governor that says that he has not received 20 trucks of rice is not being fair. In the case of Edo State that you just mentioned. Look at what happened, you see on social media, and television how people went into warehouses, broke into warehouses and brought out these goods.
“The Edo Governor, for instance, got his own and I can say in clarity that there are some state governors who of course engineered this process. Even the governor of Edo State you have just mentioned, recently when the protest started, he was the one that organised people at King Square and addressed them and at the end of the day, what did he say? He said I want to carry your message to the Federal Government in Abuja.”