By Ruth Oginyi
Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Ebonyi State chapter Tuesday disassociated itself from a purported report alleging plans to forfeit N80,000,000 each by every LGA in the State to support the state government and APC in pursuit of the Governorship Election Petition at the Tribunal.
ALGON Ebonyi however, threatens legal action against the purveyor of the fake news to defend its integrity and protect the policies of the state government.
Bar Sunday Nwankwo, the Public Relations Officer of the association and the chairman of the Ikwo local government area of the state while addressing journalists alongside other council chairmen, described the story as falsehood, a misleading allegation targeted at demeaning the credibility of the bureaucratic process of the state.
ALGON urged Ebonyi people to disregard the publication and its purveyor.
It said, “The attention of ALGON Ebony 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 on 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 in 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 on 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 calls upon the imposter to either substantiate his claim with verifiable and empirical evidence or retract same forthwith.
“We the member of ALGON shall deploy all available means within the ambit of the law to defend its integrity while identifying and protecting the laudable programs 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 Ebony State”.
