Punch Got it Wrong: Gombe Govet Denies Supply of 100 Computers for N100m

The attention of the Gombe State Government has been drawn to an online publication by the Punch Newspaper, which claimed that the state government has procured 100 units of computers at the sum of N100 million under its 2019 Budget.

According to a statement signed by Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to Gombe State governor, Ismaila Uba Misilli, which was made available to journalists in Gombe on Tuesday, "The online publication, which was also carried by some media outlets perceived to be credible in the eyes of unsuspecting public further claimed that the 100 computer sets have since been delivered.

"The said publications based their information on a tweet by TrackaNG, a project said to be initiated by BudgIT, which says it tracks the performance of government budgets."

The statement added that"TrackaNG was said to have posted photographs of the computer sets on its official Twitter handle with the text: "N100m was allocated in the 2019 budget for the supply of 100 computers in Filiya, Gombe State. We tracked, and report that the computers have been delivered. #GetInvolved.”

No where did TrackaNG mention Gombe State Government in the published report, but one wonders how an acclaimed credible media outfit like the Punch mischievously attributed it to the Government of Gombe State.

The newspaper would have saved itself the embarrassment that it now subjected itself to, with the misleading headline and story if it had carried out some checks with little efforts to find out the facts of the matter.

The statement then further added  that "We wish to advise Punch and all media houses to be circumspect, painstaking and diligent in publishing stories in an attempt to rush to press and mesmerize their readers.

It is on this note that the Gombe State Government demands an immediate retraction of the story published by The Punch, which was shared by other media outlets on their websites on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 and an apology for vilifying the Gombe State Government for not just cause.  This retraction should be given the same prominence as the said Fake news in the various publication outlets.

It declared "For the records, the state government wishes to tell Nigerians that it has no provision for the purchase of school computers in its 2019 Budget".

It should be noted that all the budgets of Gombe State are published on our website, www.mof.gm.gov.ng, including the said 2019 budget, which was already being implemented before the coming of the present administration on May 29, last year.

It concluded that "the state government wishes to once again state that there is nothing like the provision of desktop computers in its budget or their procurement. All information about Gombe State budgets are adequately captured and provided in its above-mentioned website".