From Ifeoma Ejiofor Nnewi
The South-East All Progressives Congress (APC) Young Progressives Forum, has asked Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo to stop rebagging the Federal Government’s meant for palliatives for his reelection campaigns.
The group’s position was signed by Comrades CHibuzo Michael, (State Coordinator) and Paschal Candle (National Convener)
The APC Young Progressive Forum also accused the governor of shortchanging the people of the state by sharing midget bags of rice to them against what the Federal Government(FG) consigned to them .
According to the group, the bags of rice the Federal Government allocated to the state for palliative care were in 50kg size.
They described Gov Soludo’s method of sharing the FG’s palliatives as fraudulent and asked
him stop shortchange Ndi Anambra in that respect.
The statement read thus, “The attention of the South East APC Young Progressives Forum, Anambra State Chapter has been drawn to the fraudulent manner in which the government of Anambra State under the leadership of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo has been handling the rice palliatives from the federal government.
“It is on record that shortly after the announcement of a set of federal interventions made available to the 36 states of the federation and the FCT to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy, South East APC Young Progressives Forum raised an alarm alerting ndi Anambra of the said federal palliatives comprising five truckloads of 50kg rice and the sum of N5 billion to purchase additional 100,000 bags of rice and 40,000 bags of maize and fertiliser.
“The governor in the face of the scrutiny hurriedly announced on August 22nd 2023 a draft of measures as Anambra State’s proposed intervention to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy. In the broadcast by the Governor however, he failed to acknowledge receipt of the 5 trucks of Federal rice palliatives nor the N5 billion given to states by the federal government. It was basically a broadcast lacking totally in transparency.
“The South East APC Young Progressives Forum kept vigilance to monitor when the State Governor would direct the distribution of the federal palliatives and the modalities for the distribution. It was therefore not surprising that three months after, Prof. Soludo’s government received the 5 truckloads of rice and N5 billion, they decided to use the said federal rice as campaign materials for Governor Soludo.
“Recently pictures of 10kg bags of rice branded with pictures of Governor Soludo and his party, APGA surfaced with the State Government announcing that it is now ready to share the palliatives it announced back in August. To say that this is a most uncharitable act by Governor Soludo is understatement. This fraudulent and tantamount to stealing of federal palliatives for cheap Political Popularity.
“To further compound the total lack of transparency in Soludo’s belated distribution of the federal rice palliatives, his government did not announce how they intended to ensure the rice is distributed to the most vulnerable people in the state without recourse to partisanship. Our fears were confirmed when it emerged that the rice palliatives from the federal government were being shared to supporters of APGA and the Soludo government.”
