Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
The Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Ebonyi State Chapter, on Tuesday, threatened to take legal steps against anyone peddling false rumours against it and the state government.
It vowed to deploy all available means within the ambit of the law to defend its integrity and protect the policies and programmes of the state government.
Spokesperson of the association and Chairman of Ikwo Local Government, Sunday Nwankwo, stated this in Abakaliki, at a briefing flanked by all the 13 Council Chairmen in the state.
He was reacting to allegations that Chairmen have been mandated to withdraw the sum of N80,000,000 each to support the state government and APC over petitions at the Election Petition Tribunal on the outcome of the 2023 general election.
The Chairmen described the allegation made by a member and chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chika Nwoba, as false, malicious and libelous.
Their statement read: “The attention of ALGON Ebonyi State has been drawn to a fallacious, self-serving media publication by one Nwoba Chika Nwoba wherein he falsely alleged 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 further alleged that the said Eighty Million (N80,000,000) each will be deducted at source from the June allocation of the various Local Government Areas.
“ALGON Ebonyi State wishes to expressly and unequivocally state as follows:
“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, nobody or Local Government Council Area is even sure of what returns will come from FAAC at the time of this misleading and fallacious publication.
“ALGON Ebonyi 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.
“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 call upon the impostor 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.
“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 Ebonyi State,” they said.
