Akwa Ibom State government has allegedly been ‘’duped’’ of more than N300 million by a contractor/supplier for supply of what is commonly known as Christmas rice.
It is the tradition of the state government to yearly distribute rice to friends, party faithful, stakeholders, citizens and others in the state in the spirit of Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Right from the era of ex-governor Victor Atta, Godswill Akpabio up to Udom Emmanuel, the government has not been failing in this responsibility on a yearly basis.
Since Governor Emmanuel took over reins of governance in 2015, he has not failed in heeding to this tradition.
However, for 2021 the state government could not distribute rice to many before Christmas, thus raising eyebrow in some quarters that something fishy had happened.
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A source close to Government House told Straightnews that a relative of the Governor had introduced a contractor who collected about N300 million from the government.
According to the source that did not want his name in print, the money was released to the contractor, but when he could not deliver the consignment, he was asked to refund the money.
”He admitted that he had paid the money to the company that was to supply the rice hence he was not in a position to refund the money,’’ the source told Straightnews.
According to him, ”Several other political hopefuls had their desires frustrated and those who had promised to deliver the “stomach infrastructure” failed to bring in the trucks.
”Those who had hoped to redistribute the state allocated consignment were forced to reach out to old stocks in various warehouses whose origin may have been Covid-19 palliative products.
”What bothers this writer is why we fail to plan early or why do we often plan public projects to fail. Cronyism, nepotism, avarice and egocentricity has never worked for common good. It is a disservice to all.
”It is saddening when the good becomes an enemy of the best. Let us rise from pettiness and embrace excellence and tolerate dissent,” he added.
Another source confided in Straightnews that he saw one of the closest aides to the Governor on Sunday escorting a consignment of rice to a warehouse owned by an Ibesikpo Asutan businessman and a PDP chief.
The source could not explain if the rice was the N300 million worth earlier awarded however said it could from a stockpile by the government.
To confirm the story, Straightnews reporter on Sunday called the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong on telephone but he did not respond.
The reporter later sent a text message to the Commissioner but the Commissioner is yet to respond to the enquiry as at the time of filing this report.
As at the time of filing this report, the state government was yet to share rice to some of its citizens in the spirit of the season.
