Gombe state Government has debunk a report that the state government has procured 100 units of computers at the sum of N100 million in its 2019 budget.
This was contained in a press statement signed and made available to newsmen in Gombe on Tuesday by Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, Mr Samaila Uba Misilli.
He described the report as false, demanding an apology from the source of the report.
“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.
“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.”
“Nowhere did TrackaNG mention Gombe State Government in the published report, but one wonder 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.
“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,” he said.
