The Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, on Thursday said the purported investment of the sum of N1,955,535,247.00 (an equivalent of approximately $12,616,356.43 at the then average CBN exchange rate of N155.00/$1) by one of his predecessors in office, Peter Obi, is worth next to nothing.
Obi is the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. Before clinching the presidential ticket, he was governor of Anambra State from 2006 to 2014. He had invested millions of dollars in International Breweries on behalf of Anambra State as a governor.
International Breweries (IB) Plc is a subsidiary of the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) — a multinational drink and brewing giant based in Leuven, Belgium.
Speaking at an Interview with Channels television on Thursday, incumbent Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo said he was not aware of any investment in the state by any of his predecessors.
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He said, “I don’t know about the investment. Our interview is about the 2023 budget. I’m not talking about the investments of any of my predecessors. By the way, the one that you talked about I don’t know about.”
“I think there was something I read about somebody speculating about whatever investment. With what I’ve seen today, the value of those investments is worth next to nothing. So, let’s leave that aside,” the governor said.
He added, “We are handing out employment letters to more than 5,000 teachers to end an era of schools without teachers.
“We are going to have 240 plus doctors and consultants to man our general hospitals, so if you look at the five fingers approach of our programmes; we designed our budget to keep our eyes on the ball.”
Soludo’s remarks came after he presented the N258.97bn 2023 budget to the state House of Assembly in Awka. The budget which was christened -the budget of acceleration- noted a raise from the N170bn revised 2022 budget presented by the governor in May.
