WHAT THEY WON’T TELL SAHARA REPORTERS (1)

WHAT THEY WON’T TELL SAHARA REPORTERS (1)

By Osondu Ahirika

Sahara Reporters is a respected news medium.

Some people rely on them for breaking news, especially whistle-blowing.

This reputation is not however without demerits.



Disgruntled foes, political, religious or social, find ways of manipulating them to blackmail opponents.

It is in this category that recent news on Akwa Ibom falls.

Akwa Ibom Government Budgets N14.7billion to Renovate Governor’s Lodge, Buy SUVs For State Lawmakers – Β©Sahara Reporters.

Such scaremongering.

It intends to paint the Pastor Umo Eno Administration as profligate.

I know someone somewhere sold this narrative to Sahara Reporters.

It has necessitated a rebuttal from the Government signed by Information and Strategy Commissioner,Β  Comrade Ini Ememobong.

You see this whistle-blowing – I will start mine now.

Let me tell Sahara Reporters what they won’t tell them, part 1.

They won’t tell SR that the total amount so far approved by Governor Umo Eno to offset the backlog of gratuities in his 17 months in Office is 35 billion Naira.

They won’t tell SR that 600 thousand elders receive 50 thousand Naira monthly for their upkeep through the Arise Elderly Care Initiative of Governor Umo Eno.

They won’t tell SR that Governor Eno had increased the bursary of all Akwa Ibom students in public tertiary institutions from N10,000 to N20,000 for undergraduate students and N10 to N30,000 for students studying professional courses like law, medicines, engineering, and agriculture etc.

They won’t tell SR that Governor Umo Eno has disbursed a N100 million Educational Grant for students living with disabilities.

Categorised as N250 thousand for undergraduates and N300 thousand for postgraduate students.

They would not tell SR that Governor Eno graciously converted a N2 billion loan earlier given to traders to a grant to support and grow their businesses.

How will SR acknowledge that this gesture was extended to the Arewa, Yoruba, Igbo and Niger Delta indigenes resident in the State?

Did they tell SR that Pastor Umo Eno approved an additional one-month basic salary to be paid to civil servants last December for their Christmas break and calculate what that amounted to?

Is SR aware that Governor Umo Eno approved 1.2 billion Naira for a one-off wardrobe allowance to all public primary and secondary school teachers in the State?

They won’t tell SR that Governor Eno approved the payment of a Medical Residency Training Fund of One Million Naira each to Resident Doctors in the State’s Civil Service.

They haven’t told SR that a monthly N50,000 business grant for 5,000 youths was enabled by Governor Umo Eno.

Who will help me tell SR that the 400 female youths who graduated from the Ibom-LED Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme received N500,000 empowerment each to start a business and an additional N250,000 so that they can rent shops as approved by Governor Umo Eno?

Shouldn’t SR be told that, besides these female youths, 1,200 entrepreneurs trained under Ibom-LED’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme have received N500 000 grants as startups from the Akwa Ibom State Government?

Still typing….Part 2.

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