Abia State government has denied receiving the last tranche of the Paris club refund and urged the public to disregard false reports from those it described as disgruntled elements.
Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, (NLC) , Abia State chapter, Comrade Uchenna Obigwe, had alleged that the state had received the refund and has failed to pay workers’ salaries and pension.
But reacting to Obigwe’s claims, Commissioner for Information, Abia State, Chief John Okiyi Kalu urged the chairman to stop playing politics with the issue of salary payment in the state.
The Commissioner explained that the state is up to date in the payment of salaries to its workers. He, however, stated that those who are being owed are parastatals and agencies who are empowered by law to use their revenue to pay salaries. He listed such agencies and parastatals to include Abia State Polytechnic, Aba; College of Health and Management Technology, Aba; Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu,; Abia State University ,Uturu, among others.
He said, “Details of the management of CBN bailout funds and Paris Club Refund to Abia State is within the public domain. Abia state is yet to receive the last tranche of the Paris club refund from the federal government.”
The commissioner explained that the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) had commended the transparent manner in which the state government managed the funds.
“Comrade Obigwe is also aware that the state government is already moving to sue the relevant federal government to ensure that we receive our dues with regard to the last tranche of Paris Club Refund.
“Up till today, we’ve not received and you people should begin to ask the Federal Government why they’ve not released that of Abia because they’ve released other states and are owing only Abia and about twoothers.
“Please tell whoever it’s from the presidency that Abia State has not received the last tranche of Paris Refund. And indeed there’s litigation on that matter because we are not happy.
“We have not received and we want to receive. We need it to clear outstanding pensions, support parastatals to quickly clear their outstanding.”
