APC tackles Obiano over owing Councillors in Anambra, heads to court

Leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, this evening threw their weight behind the aggrieved f immediate past councillors and deputy chairmen as they battle the state government over their unpaid statutory entitlements.

The leadership of the opposition party made a surprise appearance at the much publicised meeting of former Anambra councillors under the aegis of Anambra Councillors Forum, ASCOF, at Cana House Awka, led by their state secretary, Mr Chukwuma Agufugo.

The former councillors have finally resolved to drag the Willie Obiano-led government to court over their unpaid statutory entitlements running into millions of naira.
Addressing the aggrieved local government lawmakers, Agufugo expressed regret that the importance of the ex-councillors was lost on the state government, resulting in the shoddy manner the councillors were being treated.
He said his party appreciated the worth of the councillors and had thus come to assure them of their support. According to him, such support was not aimed at wooing the councillors to join APC, but to ensure that the state government paid them their entitlements as provided in the Anambra State Local Government Law of 2007.
Maintaining that they were only concerned in making government pay the councillors, the APC chieftain called on Gov Obiano to do so without delay, even if it meant spreading the payment across many months.
He said that from the governor’s security vote alone, the councillors could be paid and the governor would still have money left.
‘APC is ready to assist you councillors in any legal way, including demonstration, if need be, to ensure that you get what belongs to you,’ Agufugo assured.
In his response the publicity secretary of ASCOF, Hon Ebele Anoliefo, thanked the APC delegation for their concern for the welfare of the councillors, pointing out that they had shown true brotherhood at a time when even the councillors’ party members had abandoned them.
He said the councillors would not relent until the government paid them their statutory entitlements as was done to government appointees and in other states.
The councillors later resolved at their meeting to drag the Anambra State government to court, as well as to contact the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to probe the use of local council funds in the state.
They regretted that despite their assurances of loyalty to their party and the state government, nothing had been done to assuage their demands.
The meeting resolved that henceforth the former councillors would regard anyone opposed to them as an enemy.
Fides gathered that it is not only the councillors that are unhappy with the state government. A local government chairman in the last dispensation had told Fides of his plan to expose the state government on what he described as the rape of the local government system in the state.
According to him, his local government got only 8 percent of what accrued to it from the federation account, including money from Sure-P. He said that at the appropriate time, he would release his bombshell to the press so that the world, according to him, would ask questions as to what happened to the balance of the money.