Date Published: 09/02/11

War in Abia Council as Chairman slaps Treasurer over funds

The Transition Committee Chairman of Aba North Local council of Abia state, Hon David Chigbu, on friday, last week slapped his council Treasurer, Mr. Geoffrey Okezie, over the payment of a N6 million Naira judgment debt incurred by the council.

   Sources revealed that the Aba North council has been indebted to the above sum to Barrister Obiora Obianwu, SAN,principal partner of Obianwu Chambers, in respect of some legal services he rendered to the council in the past. The source added that Obianwu had approached an Aba High court for a garnishee order to recover the money owed him. Hon Chigbu was said to have received a call informing him of Obianwu’s intentions. 

  According to the chairman, "I received a call from the High Court that a garnishee order is about to be granted the lawyer who have handled many cases for the Aba north council. I immediately reached him and pleaded with him to allow us settle the debt by installment, to which he agreed. 

   "I got across to the Permanent Secretary, ministry of Local government Affairs,  Umuahia and reported the situation. The Permanent Secretary agreed to be releasing the sum of N1.5 million monthly till the debt is settled.

  "When the check for the first installment was released to the council,all the signatories of the council, the Heads of department, Head of Administration signed, while the Treasurer, Mr. Okezie, refused to sign for the payment of the money to Obianwu, who was already waiting at the bank. I got to the bank and made efforts to get the money released to him, but the Treasurer put a call across to the bank not to pay. This made me look like i came to defraud the council at the sight of the bank officials.

  "I was embarrassed at the action of the Treasurer and accosted him at his office, where he walked out on me. I had to give him a slap," Chigbu told a bewildered gathering of Aba North Council workers at the Council secretariat, Eziama.

  He also promised to fight the alleged deduction of the sum of N1.5Million from the salaries of workers of the Health Department of the council by Okezie, which led to the short- changing of the workers who threatened to take their protest of the unholy practice to Umuahia.

          Chigbu assured the workers that he is on top of the issue and would make sure that those involved would not go scot free and that the incident would not repeat itself.

         He also enjoined the workers to be of conduct always and assured them that he is designing measures to ensure salaries of workers will not in future,be tampered with . According to him, in subsequent of salaries, the council is adopting the ‘pay-at sight’ measure.

        “You know my track record that i am someone who does not accommodate fraud and corruption . I will do anything to ensure that the salaries of workers are not tampered or that no body is cheated in any form.

        “That is why we are adopting a measure which will ensure that every worker must be paid at sight when subsequent salaries will be paid. This measure is to ensure that the salaries of the workers would not be deducted,even if it is a dime,” he declared.. The treasurer promised to speak to our correspondent but continued to defer his promise when calls were made to him.