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 two
others.
“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.”