The Abia State Government has stated that it has not gotten 20 trucks of rice as a palliative from the Federal Government.
The State Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, indicated that no such palliative had arrived in the state and that there had been no contact from the Federal Government regarding any such palliative.
He dismissed as false press reports that the Federal Government had also delivered 50kg sacks of rice to states for sale at N40,000.
“We did not see any rice trucks from the federal government. The claim that a 50kg bag of rice may be sold for N40,000 is false.
“We do not deal with rumours and speculation. There has been a method by which the federal government communicates with us on palliative care, but no such message has been received,” he stated.
When asked if it was improper for the government to open channels of communication with the federal government on the topic, the commissioner stated that it was not necessary.
“There’s no need in wasting our time seeking for places to verify the news. If the report was true, we might have received it as a government directly from the federal government. “No such thing occurred!”
In response to an inquiry about the state government’s efforts to ease the effects of economic hardship on Abia citizens, he stated that the state administration “believes in teaching the people how to fish,” in addition to providing palliatives.
