More revelations has started filtering out,as Kogi state government has allegedly locked local government areas treasurer’s in Lokoja to doctor fixed amount on each local government workers in the 21 local government areas in Kogi state, indications that table payment was used to offset their arears from 20 Billion Naira bail out from CBN.
For the past weeks,the 21 local government areas treasurer’s are permanently housed in Lokoja and mandated to sign fictitious payment vouchers to workers of local governments and at the same time signed against each worker,a situation that is tantamount to forgery.
Recall ,that the anti graft agency,the EFCC recovered 20 Billion Naira bail out fund for Kogi workers at the state and local governments in a fixed deposit account of sterling Bank and returned it to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Out of the 20 Billion Naira bail out fund,local government workers are entitled to over 16 Billion Naira,while state workers had over 3 Billion Naira arears of salaries the immediate past Governor,Capt Idris Wada applied,got approval,but CBN refused to release the fund for political reasons.
He recalled the last table payment was during the administration of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and not even Capt Idris Wada,saying there is no record of table payment local government treasurers are bandied up for presentation as defence to EFCC.
Okai wondered how the state government can be so heartless in forging the signatures of local government staffers from 21 local government areas in the state, with a bloated figure ranging from 500,000 and above as entitlements already paid to them through table payments.
He used the opportunity to alert local government workers to prepare for court cases with the state government over forgery of it’s signature and fictitious allocations of money not paid to them.
The social crusader warned the state government to succumb to EFCC probe and refund workers entitlements, rather than playing gimmicks with the corruption allegations leveled against Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration.
