Former supervisors, who served in various local government areas of Anambra State until their administration was dissolution in August this year, yesterday demanded a severance package of N1.2 billion from the State Governor, Willie Obiano.

The 126 former supervisors were appointed by their elected Local Government Chairmen as provided under Section 72 of the Anambra State House of Assembly Law, 2012.

In a letter addressed to the governor after their meeting in Awka, the former supervisors threatened to drag the Secretary of the state Joint Action Committee (JAC), Mr. Tony Oli, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for the payment of their severance allowances.

The letter which was signed by the chairman of the Ex-Supervisors’ Forum, Mr. Chijioke Eruchalu, the Secretary, Mr. Cliff Nneli, and the Coordinator, Mr. Cajethan Okafor, called on the Governor to address the anomaly.

The letter reads in part: “Your Excellency, after your inauguration on March17, 2014, you did a remarkable thing by paying all Local Government officials without excluding anybody. During the countdown to the 2015 general elections, you invited all the Local Government officials to the Lodge and provided us with funds to enable us move into our various wards and communities to ensure that our party won the elections and which, we believe, you saw the resultant effect.

“To our utter dismay, somewhere along the line, we started noticing that Local Government supervisors were being sidelined. It may interest you to know that 80% of the supervisors ran for councillorship primaries in their various wards and won, but were short-changed due to one reason or the other.

“Some also ran for Local Government Chairmanship and Deputy; and since none of them was refunded the funds expended during the course of the primaries, we were placated with the appointment as supervisors.

“It is also worthy to mention that a councillor is not higher that a supervisor. Besides, we are not a creation of the Local Government Chairmen, but rather a creation of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“In view of this, we therefore plead with you to redress all the anomalies. We believe that as our father, we will get a favourable response so that we won’t feel left out and abandoned after serving our state diligently, in spite of the hard times.”

The ex-supervisors claimed that during their visit to Oli, he told them that he had no business with them. However, Oli could not be reached at press time for his reaction.

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