From CHARLES IWUOHA

The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) Ebonyi State Chapter, has threatened to institute legal action against a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Nwoba Chika, over his allegation that a directive had been given to deduct N80 million monthly from the coffers of each LG Chairman to influence the ongoing Elections Petition Tribunal in Abuja.

Public Relations officer (PRO) and Chairman of Ikwo Local government Area, Barr Sunday Nwankwo, who addressed newsmen alongside other Chairmen on Tuesday at the ALGON headquarters in Abakiliki, described Nwoba’s allegation as false, malicious, and defamatory.

According to ALGON, none of the 13 local government chairmen had been directed to “forfeit” such amount as alleged by Nwoba.

ALGON further alleged that there was no iota of truth that the said N80m each would be deducted at source from the June allocation of the various local government areas.

“ALGON Ebonyi State wishes to expressly and unequivocally state that the above statement credited to Nwoba Chika Nwoba in his Facebook page exists only in the figment of his imagination as no such directive ever emanated from His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Ebony State, either by himself, his agent or whosoever.

“The June allocation to the Local Government Areas has not yet fallen due as to even mathematically determine its volume, usage and application, therefore. No body or Local Government council Area is even sure of what returns will come from FAAC at the time of the misleading and fallacious publication.

“Ebony State would naturally have overlooked this huge joke and concentrated in 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,” Ebonyi ALGON said.

The group said It jointly disassociated itself from the misleading allegation targeted at demeaning the credibility of the bureaucratic process of the state, especially, the Local Government System and call on the imposter to either substantiate his claim with verifiable and empirical evidence or retract same forthwith.

“We the members of ALGON shall deploy all available means within the ambit of the law to defend its integrity while identifying and protecting the laudable programmes and policies of the State Government,” it said.

While calling on the good people of the state to discountenance the wicked and baseless fallacy calculated at distracting the smooth take-off of the current administration in Ebony State.

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