By Peter Okutu 

Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, Ebonyi State Chapter, Tuesday denied earmarking N1,040,000,000 billion to prosecute cases at the Ebonyi State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, to favour Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru.

The group, which frown at the allegation and those behind it, emphasized that: “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 call upon the imposter to either substantiate his claim with verifiable and empirical evidence or retract same forthwith.”

Disclosing this in a statement signed by the 13 Council Chairmen of the State, ALGON stressed that it “shall deploy all available means within the ambit of the law to defend its integrity while identifying and protecting the laudable programmes and policies of the state Government.”

The statement read in part: “The attention of ALGON Ebony State has been drawn to a fallacious, self-serving media publication by one Nwoba Chika Nivoba wherein he falsely alleged that the 13 Local Government Chairmen had been directed to “forfeit” Bighty 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) cach 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 in 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, usuage and application, therefore, no body or Local Goverment council Area is even sure of what returns will come from FAAC at the time of this misleading and fallacious publication.

“ALGON Ebony State would naturally have overlooked this huge joke and concentrated in 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.

“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.”