Group Tackles Ebonyi Gov Over N551m For Pilgrimage

A social accountability group, Association of Ebonyi Indigenes Socio-Cultural in the Diaspora (AEISCID) has warned Ebonyi State government under Governor Francis Nwifuru to back-track from its proposal to spend a whooping N551m of tax-payers’ money on Islamic pilgrimage for 46 Muslims in the state despite severe economic hardships faced by the common citizens.

In a statement released in Abuja on Monday, the AEISCID President (World-wide), Paschal Oluchukwu, described the decision as reckless, urging the “Ebonyi State House of Assembly to immediately commence the process of removing the Governor from office if he goes ahead to approve the said sum just for patronage of any religion whatsoever.”

According to Oluchukwu, “Ebonyians woke up over the weekend to a press release made by the State’s Commissioner for Information, Engr. Jude Okpor wherein he dutifully informed the public about the outcome of the weekly State Executive Council meeting presided over by the Governor.

The group quoted the resolutions of the State Exco thus: “Nigeria is a secular state, and Ebonyi under the pragmatic leadership of His Excellency, the Governor, has not only become a peaceful home for all where religious tolerance is encouraged but also seen practised.

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“In practical exhibition of this government’s disposition and intention, EXCO approved the release of the total sum of Five Hundred and Fifty-One Million, Five Hundred and Two Thousand Naira, Eighty-four kobo (N551,502,142.84) only for the sponsorship of forty-six (46) prospective pilgrims for the 2025 Hajj activities. This is to the financial implication of (N8,784,085.59) only per beneficiary in the said package.

“EXCO also resolved to ask all the council chairmen to consider the sponsorship of one (1) person in each of the council areas in the 2025 Hajj to broaden indigenes’ participation”, he had added.

But, reacting to the development, AEISCID asked the state government to immediately rescind the decision and apologise to the poor masses for even contemplating what it described as frivolity.

The statement said: “No such financial provision from our records was made in the budget estimate of the 2025 fiscal year of the government passed into law by the State’s House of Assembly in December last year.

“This is not only an abuse of public office but a gross violation of Section 120 (subsections 3 and 4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). The laws of the land is clear in subsection 3 that; ‘No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the State, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the State, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorized by a law of the House of Assembly of the State_ . Subsection 4 also aptly reiterates; _”No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the State or any other public fund of the State except in the manner prescribed by the House of Assembly.’

“As the poorest ranked State in Southern Nigeria, Ebonyi government should ordinarily channel all its efforts and energies towards ridding the impoverished _Salt of the nation_ of it’s economic woes and poverty. It sounds astonishingly strange that the same Exco on the same day approved only but a paltry sum of N300M for the purposes of ’empowering’ some 300 Ebonyians in a first item in it’s resolutions which it termed: ‘HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT.”

While condemning the government’s decision further, the group said: “We charge Nwifuru to immediately spend the resources earmarked for a frivolous religious jamboree that has no economic benefit for the State to offset the outstanding debts of the poor UBEB teachers in the State some of whom have been owed since October last year.

“It is ridiculous that in our present harsh economic realities, Ebonyi State government is pretending to have provided only N3M for it’s tax-paying indigenes for the purposes of establishing farms whereas, the same government is proposing to spend the sum of N551M for 46 Hajj pilgrims amounting to over N8M for each Islamic religious adherent benefactor. We condemn this in its entirety and ask the government to rescind the decision without further hesitation or even explanation. Failure to so do, we urge the 24 members of the State’s House of Assembly to commence an impeachment process against Governor Nwifuru,

“This body views the current anti-people’s disposition of the Governor and indeed, the government towards free speech on the Social media platforms as dangerously preposterous especially in a democratic society like Nigeria. For all we know, Ebonyi cannot operate a law outside the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and we cannot recall a passage of any cybercrime law by the National Assembly- the very reason Justice Limman of the Abakaliki Federal High Court had vehemently upheld the prayers of a victim of the law who sought for interpretation of the Court.

“Finally, AEISCID condemns the frittering and wasting of Ebonyi tax-payers money by the Governor on politicians and appointees and the utter abandonment of his so-called “People’s Charter of Needs” agenda to chase shadows and please some unknown forces while the masses languish in abject penury. As we speak, teachers in public Schools in the State are owed four months salaries that have led the NUT to declare a strike in seven out of out of 13 Local Government Areas in the state.”