During a campaign tour to Kaduna in February 2022 as a presidential aspirant of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Wike made the donation of N200 million.
The donation of N200 million by the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Kaduna State has pitched some stakeholders against the leadership of Southern Kaduna People's Union (SOKAPU).
During a campaign tour to Kaduna in February 2022 as a presidential aspirant of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Wike made the donation of N200 million.
SaharaReporters gathered that Southern Kaduna through SOKAPU got the share of N120 million while the Northern part of the state got a share of N80 million.
However, a group under the auspices of Concerned Southern Kaduna Journalists (CSKJ) has accused the leadership of SOKAPU of misappropriating N60 million out of the N120 million.
The group led by five journalists from the region, Ango Bally, Abayo Gandu, Sunday Isuwa, Israel Bulus, and Bomba Dauda alleged that SOKAPU expended only N24 million on the IDPs in the zone.
The Union while responding to the allegation through its spokesman, Luka Binniyat, described the allegation as a witch-hunt to fulfill the political interests of their sponsors.
A statement made available to journalists reads, "It is a very big dishonour and grave danger to the noble profession of journalism when politicians induce reporters and they proceed on witch-hunting to fulfill the political interests of their sponsors.
"However, one thing that stands out in the sponsored report, unfortunately for the "Concern Journalists" is that procurements and distribution to the tune of N60m were made by SOKAPU under the tenure of Hon. Jonathan Asake, now the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party for Kaduna State."
The joint statement issued by the five journalists read, "When the IDPs across Southern Kaduna received the news in February that they were to be given N120m out of the total of N200M, their joy knew no bounds. But the wild jubilation that accompanied Gov. Wike’s N120M charity was short-lived, after the Jonathan Asake-led SOKAPU, against the wish of the IDPs, bought and shared them relief materials instead of what they opted for: building materials, farming inputs, and start-up grants for petty businesses.
"Having toured the 7 local governments that were severely affected by recurring attacks, interfaced and had interviews with some of the coordinators of some of the IDPs, it became evident that the items distributed by SOKAPU were not commensurate with the N60 Million expended by the previous management of SOKAPU.
"When the coordinators of the IDPs were asked about the N120M donation by Wike, they didn’t hide their grievances while also condemning what they termed ‘misappropriation’ of the said funds.
"As part of our findings and in the principle of balancing report, we interviewed Barr. Dio Maisamari, the Acting SOKAPU President. He said about half of the N120 million was expended by the outgoing president, Jonathan Asake. That is, about N60 million was purportedly expended on the purchase of Rice, Beans, Gari, Maize, Macaroni, Spaghetti, Sugar, Salt, Indomie noodles, Maggi, Soap, Vaseline, Vegetable Oil, Pampers, Sanitary Wares, and transportation. However, the puzzle lies in the number of IDPs, the total number of displaced persons in the camps, and the number of items distributed to these IDPs."