Ebonyi ALGON debunks alleged bribery claims
From Chinedu Nwafor, Abakaliki
The Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) Ebonyi State Chapter has debunked alleged claim of a planned attempt by Council Chairmen in the State to divert local government funds to bribe judges handling Ebonyi tribunal cases and described it as fake news
Briefing Journalists in ALGON office Abakaliki, on Tuesday, the 13 Council Chairmen led by its Chairman, Chief Moses Ogodo-Ali Nomeh, challenged the the State PDP publicity secretary, Mr Nwoba Chika Nwoba,who made the allegation to come up with evidence or tender unreserved apology to them, else, they might have no other option than to seek a redress in Court.
“The attention of ALGON Ebonyi State has been drawn to a fallacious, self-serving media publication by one Nwoba Chika Nwoba wherein he falsely alleged that the 13 Local Government Chairmen had been directed to “forfeit” Eighty million Naira (N80,000,000) each in pursuit of the Governorship Election Petition at the Tribunal in Abuja.
“That the said Eighty Million (N80, 000, 000) cash will be deducted at source from the June allocation of the various Local Government Areas.
“ALGON Ebonyi State wishes to expressly and unequivocally state as follows:
“That the above statement credited to Nwoba Chika Nwoba on his Facebook page exists only in the figment of his imagination as no such directive ever emanated from His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Ebonyi State, either by himself, his agent, or whosoever.
“The June allocation to the Local Government Areas has not yet fallen due to even mathematically determining its volume, usage, and application, therefore, nobody in our Local Government Council Area is even sure of what returns will come from FAAC at the time of this misleading and fallacious publication.
“ALGON Ebony State would naturally have overlooked this huge joke and concentrated on its business of good governance as the third tier of government but for the sake of the gullible and uninformed public who do not know the notorious and mischievous antecedents of the writer whose stock in trade is to cast aspersion on persons and government to achieve cheap popularity and put bread on his table.
“ALGON in Ebonyi State jointly and severally disassociates itself from the misleading allegation targeted at demeaning the credibility of the bureaucratic process of the state, especially, the Local Government System, and calls upon the imposter to either substantiate his claim with verifiable and empirical evidence or retract same forthwith.
“We the member of ALGON shall deploy all available means within the ambit of the law to defend its integrity while identifying and protecting the laudable programs and policies of the State Government.
“Conclusively, we call on the good people of the state to discountenance this wicked and baseless fallacy calculated at distracting the smooth take-off of the current administration in Ebony State”.
