The Abia State Government has stated that it has not received the 20 trucks of rice intended as palliative aid from the Federal Government.

The State Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, who stated this, said no such palliative had arrived in the state, adding that there was no communication from the Federal Government for any such palliative.

He described as fake news, reports that the Federal Government had also distributed 50kg bags of rice to states for sale at the cost of N40,000.

“We didn’t see any truck of rice from the Federal Government. And the issue of selling a 50kg bag of rice for N40,000 is fake news.

”We don’t deal with rumours and speculations. There has been a way the federal government communicates with us when it has to do with palliatives, and no such message has come from the federal government,” he said.

Fielding questions on whether it was not proper for the government to open channels of communication with the federal government on the issue, the commissioner said it was not necessary.

“There is no point for us to be wasting our time looking for where to verify the news. If the news was authentic, we could have gotten the message as a government straight from the federal government. No such thing happened!”

Reacting to an inquiry on the efforts of the state government to alleviate the effects of the economic hardship on Abia residents, he said the state government “believes in teaching the people how to fish,” in addition to giving them palliatives.