Arrest of Okorocha’s top aides not surprising – NLC



The Nigeria Labour Congress has said that the arrest of Governor Rochas Okorocha’s top aides by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for reportedly looting part of the N2 billion bailout funds meant for Imo State was not in any way surprising.

President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba in a statement on Sunday condemned the lack of transparency in the handling of the funds by officials wherein people for whom the funds were meant never knew about the availability such funds in the first place.

According to him, “Curiously rather than apply the funds to cushion the hardship months of salary arrears indebtedness had caused workers, the Imo Governor chose instead to summarily shut down government establishments and force workers out with backlog of unpaid salaries.


“We were not fooled by the governor’s claim of lack of funds to pay salaries as he clearly could not show where he had channeled the bailout funds. Thus, our shutting down Imo State over two weeks ago through mass protests and strike by workers has been vindicated.”

He observed that most of the state and local governments have not joined the President Muhammadu Buhari’s passion, to change the way public funds are diverted to personal resources of top government officials.

“This watery appetite for quickly channelling allocation from the centre, including loans, into personal accounts of the executives and their aides and cronies must be focused upon by the anti-graft agencies.

“We call on ICPC and EFCC to monitor the disbursement of the bailout funds across the states. We further challenge the state governments in the spirit of the President’s gesture to publish how they have disbursed the funds,” he stated.


The NLC president said the alleged looting of public funds by the Imo State Government must be discouraged.

“The crave for looting of state resources by a few privileged persons in government while turning around to unleash wickedness on innocent and hapless workers through owing of salaries and crude redundancy disengagements will no more be left unchallenged.

“We recommit ourselves to eternal vigilance and never again will workers be sacrificed to oil the watery appetite for stealing by chief executives of states and government agencies,” he stated.

The Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, like other state governor, had always claimed that his government was workers-friendly and had used the current economic difficulties which the entire nation is going through as an excuse for his inability to pay workers’ salaries despite the bailout funds.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Man Arrested For Biting Off Woman’s Finger During Fight At A Restaurant

‘How Ex-NSA Dasuki Begged Tinubu For Buhari’s Ticket In 2011’