OWERRI—Imo State government has said that contrary to the N175.034 billion said to have accrued to the27 local council areas of the state between May 2011 and December 2014, heavy deductions were usually made at source before remittance.The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, made the clarification in a press statement made available to Vanguard in Owerri yesterday.“We do not intend to join issues with Hon. Ihedioha on the allocations he published but suffice it to say thathe should have known more than most people in the state that allocations do not get to the state as published. Heavy deductions are always done at source,” Onwuemeodo said.While noting that all the allocations received by the government of Rochas Okorocha had been justified, Onwuemeodo also said the free education programme was capital intensive, explaining that was why the federal government could not do it.He said: “The Okorocha government has monumental infrastructural development, massive road construction, visible empowerment programme, aggressive renovation of schools, the erection of 305 upstair school buildings in the 305 wards in the state, 27 ultra modern hospitals in the 27 local governments in the state.”He tasked Chief Ihedioha to also publish the allocations received by the local councils within the 12 years the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, was in power in the state.“The PDP governorship candidate should equally do Imo people a favour by listing all the federal government’s projects captured in the federal budgets for the state also for 16 years and how much that had been released for the projects.“He should also list who collected the money and where the projects which such monies were allocated aresited for Imo people to equally go and see,” Onwuemeodo saidVanguard recalls that a document released in Owerri by Chief Ihedioha indicated that the 27 local government areas of the state received a total of N175,034,754,198.58 within the period under referenceA breakdown of the figures showed that Mbaitoli local council area received the highest allocation of N7,911,605,236.16, followed by Isiala Mbano local government area with an allocation of N7,264,718,173.64.Conversely, Nkwerre local government area received the lowest allocation of N5,417,840,531.43, closely followed by Onuimo and Nwangele with N5,739,729262.70 and N5,930,969,442.39 respectively.
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