Governor Charles Soludo has denied the reports alleging ‘budget-padding’ in the state
In a statement by his press secretary, Christian Aburime, Soludo described the reports as false.
According to him, the peddlers were those who have lost out in milking the state treasury.
“These are the handwork of losers and detractors. The misinformation should evoke pity for the purveyors in the light of the manifest ignorance boldly couriered in every paragraph of the hasty piece of distraction.
“Bad as it is, no credible reporter has signed this off, establishing it for what it is; lazy propaganda,” he said.
He said for clarity, the government is not oblivious of the diversionary antics of those whose lucrative criminal enterprise is being smoked out by the government’s renewed fight against all forms of criminality in the state.
“We want to make the state a livable and prosperous smart mega city by confronting head-on the infrastructural decay, such as in the area of roads that is clearly in deplorable situation” he said .
According to him, the government has declared a state-of-emergency on Anambra roads and infrastructure.
The governor said that giving priority to infrastructure development, the government has allocated about 64 per cent of the capital budget and an ambitious target of flagging off at least 220km of roads as soon as rain abates.
“With this ambitious program and knowing fully, that failure does not exist in our determined minds, the detractors are at loss and are raising the battle cry with the sole aim of trying to scuttle our determination with all manners of blackmail.
“They claimed that the commissioner for works refused to appear before the state Assembly to defend the budget. This again is the figment of the imagination of the unknown writers with the intent of creating rancor between the executive and the members of the House of Assembly.
“The Commissioner for Works and infrastructure was, indeed, the first commissioner to appear before the House Committee on the first day of the budget defense exercise being 29th of June, 2022 at about 10.00AM. This is on record and was captured by the Press.” he added.
