Ebonyi govt denies spending N1.1b on wildlife

Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Jude Okpor, on Tuesday, denied social media news that the state government spent N1.1b in nine months on wildlife conservation.

The social media publications had claimed that the state government had spent N1.1bn on wildlife in nine months, less than the amount allocated for Health and Water Provisions in its 2024 budget, but the state says this is untrue.

In a statement signed by the Information Commissioner, the government frowned at the social media reports, which it said fell short of investigative journalism.

Describing the news as untrue, he noted that the N1.1b was an amount meant for a contingency item, which the approved budget coded under “Margin for Increase in Cost” and wildlife conservation.

According to him, the publication is, to say the least, not well-researched and devoid of any iota of truth. The writer failed to carry out adequate investigations necessary to authenticate his report.

He added that, without bearing any grudge or prejudice against the author of the publication, but in full understanding of his ignorance, the government wishes to clarify as follows:

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“First, the amount N1.1bn recorded against wildlife conservation is an amount meant for a contingency item, which the approved budget has coded under ‘Margin for Increase in Cost’ and not ‘Wildlife Conservation.’

“If the author has seen it otherwise, it could probably have been a misplacement or typographic error, which the author, who rightly asserted that there is no zoo in Ebonyi, should have resorted to the rightful authorities for clarification in line with the ethics of journalism.

“Secondly, we wish to clarify that the Approved Budget has a different template from the Quarterly Budget Implementation Report template, and at the point of populating the Quarterly Report, which the said publication particularly referred to, the economic code was erroneously imputed. In the Approved Budget, from which the state government spends, the said amount is under the Contingency Fund.

“It should be clarified also that projects and programs recorded under Contingency are projects/programs not envisaged but which came up during budget implementation. There’s no actual record in the state where such an amount, as reported by the media outlet, was spent on Wildlife Conservation. That is an error in transmission.

“We, therefore, wish to urge the general public, particularly those who may have the need to refer to such a document as advanced by the publication, to be guided, as we assure that the error will be corrected to reflect the correct economic description when the state produces its Quarter 4 Budget Implementation, which will be made public in January 2025,” he said.