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Onche Egwu, Makurdi
The Benue State Commissioner for Finance, David Olofu, on Monday told newsmen in Makurdi that about N1bn from the bailout was used to augment civil servants’ salaries in November and December of 2015.
Olofu said the N15.5bn released for the payment of salaries of local government workers also had a balance of over N1bn which was still in the account of the state government, awaiting complaints from some of the staff members.
He said the special adviser to the governor on local government would be giving journalists details of how the balance would be utilised, pointing out that bailout funds were given to the states as loan.
He denied an allegation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission that the state paid N37.7m to Lobi Stars Football Club twice from the bailout released to the states last year.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Odeh Ageh, said the N37.7m, which was alleged to have been an overpayment to LSFC, covered the salaries of two months – from the second half of December 2014 to the second half of February 2015..
“While we commend the efforts of the ICPC to instil financial discipline and transparency in governance, we feel it could have been better if it had first contacted us for clarification before going to the press, more so that investigations are ongoing,” he emphasised.
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