Imo Governor Uzodimma spent over N650m on ‘stationery, gifts to guests, others’ in 3 months, N30m on poverty alleviation

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State spent over N650million on “stationery, gifts to government guests, entertainment and others” in three months (July-September 2023) while he expended N30million on poverty alleviation, according to the state budget performance report analysed by SaharaReporters on Wednesday.

The report on Pages 25 and 27 stated that while the state government spent the sum of N89,975,000 on office stationery and computer consumables, N20,000,000 was spent on gifts to government guests, N21,070,000 on magazines and periodicals (newspapers) and N49,756,046.76 on entertainment.

Within the three-month period, the report also listed that the Governor Uzodinma-led Imo State government spent N10,675,820.29 on leave bonus, while N506,434,736.31 was spent on unspecified items simply tagged “others.”

SaharaReporters observed that the Imo State government under Uzodimma in the three months under review recorded zero allocations for items such as “provision of water facilities, hospitals and health centres, libraries and ICT infrastructures.”

Uzodimma recently got a reelection in a controversial governorship election on November 11 which was roundly criticised and rejected by the main opposition parties – the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which adjudged the poll as suppressive, violent and rigged.

The report, titled “Imo State Government Budget Performance Report - 2023 Quarter 3” was “produced by the Account General Department/Ministry of Finance/Ministry of Planning and Budget/Imo State equivalent and published on the Imo State website.”

It stated that “This report includes the original approved budget appropriation for the year 2023 against each organizational unit for each of the core economic classification of expenditures (Personnel, Overheads, Capital, and Others); the actual expenditures for the quarter Q3, attributed to each organizational unit, as well as the cumulative expenditures for year to date, and balances against each of the revenue and expenditure appropriations.”

The report on Pages 38 stated that the Governor Uzodinma-led Imo State government spent a total sum of N200,000,000 on Heartland Football Club while the sum of N5,000,000 was spent on construction and equipping of gate house at the deputy governor’s lodge.

The document further showed that the governor spent the sum of N133,886,325.69 on transport within the three months under review while he approved N30,000,000 for poverty alleviation in the state within the same period.

Several civil societies and groups within and outside the state have recently decried the Uzodimma administration, alleging that it has plunged the state into hardship, insecurity and reign of hoodlums.

One of them, the Imo State Liberation Movement, recently raised the alarm that the state was heading towards collapse if nothing was quickly done to liberate it from bad leadership.

The movement with membership cut across 27 Local Government of the state had lamented that businesses in some parts of the state like Orlu, Orsu, Okigwe, Oru West, Onu Imo and Ehime Mbano had collapsed since 2021, adding that they waited to see if the present government could save them from extinction, but regrettably, things seemed to be getting worse.

“Having suffering untold hardship for years now, we feel that all of us may die if we continue to keep quiet. We therefore have invited every one of you today to inform you that the present leadership has failed us.

"We are members of Imo State Liberation Movement. Our membership cut across 27 Local Government of the state. We can be seen in all status of the society, artisans, market men and women, Okada riders, technicians, drivers, farmers and hunters etc. Our movement is grass- root oriented, but very apolitical,” the movement had said.

After the governorship election, the candidates of the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Athan Achonu and Senator Samuel Anyanwu respectively had unanimously called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to review the results of the Saturday's election or cancel the entire election.

They had made the demand in joint press conference in Owerri, the Imo State capital, describing the election as an “open rape.”

The governorship candidates, who said they had expected the INEC to use the election to redeem itself from the shenanigans of the February 25 presidential election and March 18 governorship election, wondered how Nigerian people could trust the commission with its mantra of conducting a free, fair and credible election in Nigeria again.

Achonu, who said INEC announced results of areas without any form of accreditation whatsoever, had added that "where there was accreditation, results were already preloaded by 10 am in the morning even when voting was still ongoing."