Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) Ebonyi state chapter has Tuesday challenged the originator of the ‘fake news’ on the planned attempt to siphon local government funds for bribes to provide evidence of his claim.
The publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party Nwoba Chika Nwoba had on his Facebook page alleged that the 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.
He added that money will be deducted at source from the June allocation of the various Local Government Areas.
But in a statement signed by the 13 LGA chairmen under the leadership of ALGON chairman in Ebonyi state, Chief Moses Ogodoali, they denied the allegations describing it as fake news.
The statement reads, “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”.
