A social critic, Comrade Austin Okai has raised an alarm alleging that local government treasurers across the 21 LGAs have been locked up in an office in Lokoja, Kogi state capital, to doctor documents that will “prove” that the controversial N20 billion bailout was used to pay LG workers.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, Okai warned the state government to succumb to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) probe and refund workers entitlements.
He stated that rather than playing gimmicks with the corruption allegations leveled against Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration, the state government should look for ways to pay teachers, local government workers and pensioners what they are owed.
“As more revelations started filtering out, Kogi state government has reportedly locked treasurers of local government areas treasurers in Lokoja to doctor fixed amount on each local government worker in the 21 LGAs in Kogi state to claim that table payment was used to offset their salary arrears from the 20 Billion Naira bail out accessed from CBN.
“In the past weeks, the 21 local government areas treasurers are permanently housed in Lokoja and mandated to sign fictitious payment vouchers to workers of local governments and at the same time signed against each worker, a situation that is tantamount to forgery.
“Recall that the anti graft agency, the EFCC, recovered 20 Billion Naira bailout fund meant for Kogi workers at the state and local governments in a fixed deposit account warehoused in Sterling Bank and returned it to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Out of the 20 Billion Naira bailout fund, local government workers are entitled to over 16 Billion Naira while state workers had over 3 Billion Naira salary arrears as was approved for the immediate past Governor, Capt Idris Wada, but CBN refused to release the fund for political reasons.
“The last table payment was during the administration of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and not even Capt Idris Wada. There is no record of table payment that the Bello’s administration is scheming to use local government treasurers for presentation as defence to EFCC.
“How can a state government be so heartless to the point of forging the signatures of local government staffers from 21 local government areas in the state, with a bloated figure ranging from 500,000 and above as entitlements already paid to them through table payments?,” he said.
Okai urged local government workers in Kogi state to prepare for court cases with the state government over forgery of their signatures and fictitious allocations of money not paid to them.
