Governor Professor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has expressed frustration over opposition voices within the state discrediting the accomplishments of his administration for the sake of gaining political advantage.
The Governor described such action as unproductive, saying it breeds “jaundiced perceptions, campaigns of calumny and discord in society, which can lead to anarchy.”
Soludo, in a statement on Thursday by his Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, gave the warning against what he called a distortion of realities concerning the activities of his administration.
He stated this while reacting to the alleged washing away of a road in Ochanja area of Onitsha by flood after a heavy rain that fell Monday evening.
The statement explained that the road in question was still under construction and had not even been completed as falsely reported by a viral video footage on the social media and some mainstream news outlets.
According to the statement, “What transpired was not an exposure of government negligence or incompetence, but rather a proof of the dangers of a single story.
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“The road in question was neither poorly constructed, nor has it been commissioned as alleged. It was a case of misinterpretation, fueled by the insidious spread of fake news, because the road is still under ongoing construction.
“In reality, the alleged damage to the road was a mere consequence of inclement rainfall and construction procedures.
“According to professional explanations by both the contracting firm and the Commissioner for Works in Anambra State, what happened was that the construction engineers were laying the last bit of asphalt on the paver when it started to rain on Monday 25, March 2024, and the base course on which the asphalt was laid was wet.
“When the engineers noticed that the base course was wet, they cut off the portion that was laid on the wet surface and used it to fill the adjoining street, which the mischief-maker’s video captured as part of the roads commissioned.
The Anambra State governor further alleged that the trending video deliberately included a misleading footage of a different, already existing road that was not under construction, saying “yet, unsuspecting Nigerians online saw the video and typically started rambling “See the road Soludo just commissioned.” What a mob of ignoramuses and fake news traffickers fill the cyberspace!” Aburime lamented.
Governor Soludo advised citizens of the state to verify any information before believing them, and, also appealed to newsmen to always investigate any information before publishing them.
