The former Secretary to the Anambra State government under the administration of Mr. Peter Obi, Chief Oseloka Obaze has revealed that the former governor procured a total of 400 SUVs from Innoson, which he shared to traditional rulers in the state. Anambra has 177 communities, which means 177 monarchs benefitted from the car gifts.
Mr. Oseloka Obaze inadvertently made this revelation when he was trying to weigh on the Erisco tomato vs Chioma saga on his X (twitter) handle especially what he considered a PR disaster from Erisco tomato company in their handling of the controversy.
Mr. Obaze said, “Potential Corporate PR’s disasters require tact & diplomacy. When I was the SSG in Anambra Peter Obi, procured over 400 SUVs for the Traditional Rulers. One day, a Traditional Ruler & Classmate called to say his SUV crashed. Luckily no injuries or fatalities….”
Unfortunately for the former SSG, the attention of many X users was drawn to the part Obaze said Obi procured 400 SUVs for traditional rulers in Anambra State. This obviously was due to Mr. Peter Obi’s earlier opposition against the purchase of SUVs by the National Assembly last year. Obi had described the planned purchase as waste of resources and called for a cut in the cost of governance.
Many X users descended on Mr. Peter Obi accusing him of hypocrisy and playing to the gallery on the issue of cutting down cost of governance. Some further berated him for painting himself as a frugal person who abhors waste while forgetting that he spent meagre resources belonging to Anambra State to buy 400 SUVs for just 177 traditional rulers, just like national assembly SUV purchases.
Others wondered what must have happened to the remaining 230 SUVs after the 177 traditional rulers had collected one each leading many to conclude that Mr. Peter Obi was not interested on actual reduction in the cost of governance but merely playing to the gallery to please his base.