A SaharaReporters’ review of the Ebonyi State full year budget performance document, has shown that a sum of N8.357 billion spent by the state government on purchase of vehicles.
The vehicles were said to be 20 in number and meant to serve as “official vehicles for the current administration”.
By the virtue of the money spent, it would mean that each official vehicle purchased cost an average of N417million.
While the state spent N8.3billion on 20 official vehicles, it spent N846.6 million on rehabilitation and repairs of water facilities, reaching only 63.9% for the all critical water sector facilities rehabilitation.
“Rehabilitation/repairs of public schools took only N2.7 billion; rehabilitation and repairs of roads took N11.9billion, which is only N3.6 billion higher than the N8.3 billion spent on purchase of twenty official vehicles.”
The State Internal Affairs Ministry suffers paltry budget execution, review of budget performance documents for two consecutive years show.
In February 2023, the former governor, Dave Umahi, set up two security outfits codenamed Ebonyi Neighbourhood Watch and Ebonyi Vigilante Watch meant to tackle internal security issues in the state.
Further review by SaharaReporters shows that Ebonyi State in 2024 budgeted the sum of N1 billion on capital expenditure of its internal security ministry but spent only N488.740 million at the end of the year, showing a 48.7% budget performance for the sector.
In 2024, out of the N488.740 million spent by the state government on capital expenditure for its internal security ministry, N302 million was used for traffic lights in capital city.
The line item “purchase of ten numbers security vehicles” had a budget of N155 million under the Ministry of Internal Security in the 2024 fiscal year however none of the vehicles were bought.
Construction of security posts at 160 locations had a budget of N30 million in 2024, but going by the zero percent budget performance for the line item, none of the security posts were erected.
Purchase of security surveillance cameras had a budget of N100 million but only N1.3 million was spent by the state for this purpose in 2024.
In 2023, it was same pattern as a sum of N2.5 billion was budgeted for the Internal Security, and Border, Peace capital expenditure of the state, however, only N392.6 million was spent throughout the year.
Ebonyi also has been suffering from insecurity, SaharaReporters reported how at least 16 persons were killed in attack by suspected gunmen on Amagu-Nkalaha village in the state.
The suspected herders also selectively burned houses and destroyed properties valued at millions of naira in the community.
While confirming the development which happened on Sunday, the state police command spokesperson, Joshua Ukandu, said security operatives recovered 10 bodies after the attack.
Ukandu had stated that the police are currently investigating the incident, claiming normalcy had since returned to the area.
“Several houses were also burnt selectively in the area, and other properties destroyed. Upon receipt of the information, we drafted police operatives to the area.
“We are currently investigating the incident while normalcy has returned to the area,” the PPRO stated.
“We also recovered 10 corpses from the area. At the moment, our personnel are there, and normalcy is returning to the area,” Ukandu added.
Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers, armed with cutlasses and guns, launched the attack in the early hours of Sunday.
The Chairperson of Ishielu LGA, Mrs. Ifeoma Agwu, confirmed that authorities are still evacuating bodies and assessing the full extent of the casualties.
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