By Chidi Nkwopara & Chinonso Alozie

OWERRI—Contrary to speculations, federal allocations that accrued to the 27 local government areas of Imo State from May 2011 to December 2014 stood at N175.034 billion.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, who released the document in Owerri, also said the facts could be verified from the Office of the Director of Budget, Federal Ministry of Finance.

According to Chief Ihedioha, the total money that accrued to the state within the period under reference was N175,034,754,198.58.

A breakdown of the figures showed that Mbaitoli Local Government received the highest allocation of N7,911,605,236.16, followed by Isiala Mbano council with an allocation of N7,264,718,173.64.

Conversely, Nkwerre council 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.

Ihedioha, who is Imo State governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, also disclosed that the essence of releasing the document to the citizenry was to enable the people get the facts of the matter.

He said: “All the 27 local government areas of the state are simply comatose. No visible activity is going on in any of them, while the state government has illegally coveted their funds for inexplicable reasons.

“Since the document is now in public domain, no government official will dare to challenge me to show proof of misapplied local council funds.

“Despite the state government’s puerile claims, what is on ground in the councils are not commensurate with the huge funds that accrued to the council areas.

“All the 27 local governments are seriously starved of funds, except payment of salaries.

“Our people are, therefore, demanding for explanation on where the state government channelled the funds.”