Dennis Udoma, Uyo
A Civil Society Organization in Akwa Ibom State, Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN), has called on the State Governor, Mr Umo Eno to publish names and complete details of AK – CARES beneficiaries’ phase 2 for accountability and transparency since the programme took off in the state.
CHRAN State Director, Otuekong Franklyn Isong and Secretary, Barrister Christopher Ekpo made the call in Uyo when the Executive members of the Correspondents’ Chapel visited him on Thursday.
AK – CARES, is a phase-by-phase social and economic interventionist programme supported by the Federal Government, State Government and the World Bank to improve the economic well-being of the citizenry, and so, the CSO is querying its implementation, processes and who gets what.
CHRAN, therefore demanded to know as part of its responsibility of holding the state government accountable in disbursing such benefits to the state’s people.
According to the organization, “We want to know the transparency and accountability of government in the affairs of AK-CARES Phase 2 Programme, an intervention of the State Government, Federal Government and World Bank, to ensure that the people of the State are positively impacted without regard to partisan affiliation.
Apart from the large billboards mounted at strategic locations across the State with photographs of the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, and of the Commissioner for Economic Development, Mr. Emem Bob, nothing much is heard of the Programme.
“We, therefore, called on the Government of Akwa Ibom State to make public the full list of the beneficiaries of the AK-CARES Phase 2 Programme with their detailed information, including their addresses, and the processes of their selection,” it added.
In a related development, CHRAN has challenged the Akwa Ibom state government on the receipt of over N26b in February from the federation account saying, the funds should be used to mitigate poverty.
He observed that, with the huge amount received by the governor in one month, poverty should be far away from the people if properly managed to the benefit of the people.
Isong further explained that money received by the Akwa Ibom state government last month was not commensurate with infrastructure on ground to show for such financial windfall for the state.
As governor Umo Eno marks one year of election victory, he should also assess what he had put down for the people and compare same to the amount of money received so far from the federation account.”
Even though the local government allocation has improved tremendously, nothing to show at the third tier of government in the state.
From the available statistics, local governments in the state have received so much money.
A breakdown of the receivables Akwa council areas are as follows: Uyo local government – N397m, Abak- N298m, Eastern Obolo- N239m, Eket -N328m, Ibeno-N253m.
Others are Ikot Abasi- N290m, Essien Udim -N324m, Mkpat Enin- N322m while OrukAnam council area received N319m, among others.
Isong observed that money received by Umo Eno could not be channelled to abandoned road projects littering the local government areas as the people live in abject poverty.
He said this poverty is expressed in the number of unemployed graduates and out-of-school children who may not have means of livelihood to survive the present economic hardship.
He, therefore, urged the Akwa Ibom government to use the jumbo allocation to settle the people in infrastructure, capital projects and poverty alleviation programmes.
“Use this fund to change the life of the people who voted for you so that the joy of one-year election victory can be full”, he said.