By Editor 
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, has debunked the claim from the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, that every state was given an additional N30 billion to tackle the hunger and economic hardship in their state.
Speaking during one of the plenary sessions a few days ago, Akpabio had said that the street protests against hardship in parts of the country were sponsored.
In his reaction to the claim, Governor Umo Eno revealed that what the federal government gave to states as palliative was N2 billion each. He said that the federal government had said that the money was going to be N5 billion, but that they are yet to receive the N3 billion balance.
According to the report by Sahara Reporters, Governor Eno added that the federal government has even written to them to refund the N2 billion back to them, which means that the 2 billion naira was actually a loan they gave to them.
He said, “On the palliative, thank God he was on the palliative committee. The money that the Federal Government gave to me or to the state, and indeed, to all states, was N2 billion, even though the Federal Government said it was N5 billion. We are yet to receive the balance of N3 billion.
“Even the N2 billion, the Federal Government has written to us that it has to be refunded. If we refund the money that was generally believed to be funds that was given to the state, it means that it is the state that did the palliative.”
Governor Eno lamented that we are in a time when people tell all sorts of lies against the government and incite the people just to remain relevant. He said that such things do not happen in civil society, and spoke about the need to balance information.
