The National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has accused Imo state governor, Hope Uzodinma of diverting funds belonging to Local Governments against the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) guidelines.
The union who is gearing towards a shutdown of activities from Friday 24 April 2020 , over the refusal of the state government to pay their two months salaries has the backing of the national secretariat of the union.
Already, the national headquarter has also resolved to mobilize necessary supports for the state chapter in the struggle to get the local government fund released as stipulated by NFIU; and get their salaries paid.
The President of NULGE, Comrade Ibraheem Khaleel, told journalists that the Imo State Government has refused to pay the local government workers for two months despite the lockdown and COVID-19 crises, adding that the government has also failed to release LG funds from the Federal Allocation.
According to Comrade Khaleel, the union got an information that the state government was allegedly lodging the money into another account, instead of releasing it for the local government use.
“The government of Imo State is tampering with the Local Government (LG) Funds and have refused to pay the salaries of local government workers despite the lockdown and the COVID-19 crisis.
“The government is deliberately diverting the local government funds, and have refused to comply with the NFIU guidelines on the allocation and release of local government funds.
“Since he came on board, he has not disclosed the amount he got from the Federation Account, he has not implemented the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) guidelines, the money meant for local government has not been released and the governor is not paying the local government workers.”
He Said: “The most important thing is that the government has not paid our members for two months. We are in lockdown, and our people need their salary to survive.
“He (the state governor) said he wants to embark on verification and we told him that he has locked people inside and how do you expect them to start coming out for verification. Just pay them now and after the lockdown you can then embark on verification.
“We try to let him know that he must pay us, whereby he refused, we gave him seven days ultimatum which expired last Friday last week. We now gave him another one that started on Monday and will end on Thursday. So, we are threatening to shut down on Friday.”
