The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC,
in Benue State, yesterday expressed shock over the alleged withdrawal of the
final tranche of the Paris Club refund earlier paid to the state government.
Governor Samuel Ortom had last
Thursday confirmed the receipt of N 14.9bn Paris Club refund.
Also on Monday, the governor
directed the state Ministry of Finance to commence the payment of workers’
salary arrears and allowances to pensioners.
But in a new twist, the federal
government allegedly recalled the Paris Club refund for yet-to-be disclosed
reason.
“Everybody has been expecting to
be paid because the governor on Monday directed the payment of salary arrears.
“I don’t know the reason for that
nonsense; I don’t know where this country is heading to.”
Meanwhile, the convener of the
Middle Belt Movement for Justice and Peace, Joe Bukka, yesterday, also
described the decision of the Federal Government to recall the Paris Club
refunds paid to Benue and four other states as “the height of impunity,
executive recklessness and a witch – hunt against ordinary Nigerians.”
Speaking also in Makurdi, Bukka
insisted that the Federal Government had embarked on a systematic witch-hunt of
some state governments probably for political reasons at the detriment of the
ordinary Nigerian and civil servants.
He said: “In the first place, it
is not the responsibility of the Federal Government to monitor how states disburse
and utilise their funds. Moreover, the Paris Club refund was only warehoused by
the Federal Government on behalf of the states; it is not a gratification or
loan.
“So, the Federal Government lacks
the powers to recall the money, which belongs to the state from the onset. As
far as we are concerned, this is the height of impunity, executive recklessness
and a witch – hunt against the ordinary Nigerians who were expecting to get the
backlog of their salaries from the fund.
“We just wonder if this Federal
Government has the interest of the ordinary people at heart. Just take for
instance a state like Benue that has over time been contending with
socio-economic and security challenges as a result of the lingering herdsmen
killings, and you want to treacherously sit on their legitimate funds.
“No doubt, this directive will
cause collateral damage to the socio- economic life of the government and
people of the affected states. Hence, it should be reversed without further
delay because even if the states fail to transparently appropriate the funds,
they would have the people to contend with.
“The Federal Government must
realise that this move will deepen the animosity of the people of the states
like Benue towards the APC-led Federal Government because they will be hurt the
more and obviously unhappy.”
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