RUGA: Ohanaeze leader, Nwodo speaks on receiving N6.2bn from Buhari

President-General, of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Nnia Nwodo has said he did not collected N6.2 billion from President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the Federal Government’s RUGA programme in the South-East.

He stated this in a press release signed and issued to journalists by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Emeka Attamah, on Friday.

According to Nwodo, he was neither a traditional ruler nor governor in the South-East, as such, he had no land in his custody to offer for RUGA.

The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to an insidious social media story making the rounds that the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, and a Distinguished Senator and former Deputy Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Ike Ekweremadu, collected a whopping 6.2 billion naira from President Buhari out of 22.2 billion Naira budgeted to plant RUGA in the country.

“The story which was purported to have emanated from a faceless traditional ruler from Umuchigbo Abakpa in Enugu State sounded preposterous and deserves to be consigned to the dust bin where it rightly belongs knowing that the purveyors of the story may have underestimated the intelligence of some audience of the social media but who certainly may not be as gullible as they think and will do with some clarifications.

“Why did the writer not mention the name of the traditional ruler and whether he was there when money exchanged hands?

“One would have expected the detractors to have established the veracity of their claim by giving an insight into how the money exchanged hands or through which bank accounts they were remitted to Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu.

“It will also have been good if the accusers had clarified if Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu collected the money as individuals or on behalf of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

“For the sake of clarity, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has no control over land in Enugu State or in the South East neither does Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu.

“Again, Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu are not traditional rulers and therefore don’t have custody of land in the South East.

“They should also have authenticated their allegation by stating where the said RUGA settlements are in Enugu State or in the South-East.”