By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Sources close to Heads of Local Governments Administration (HOLGA) in Cross River state have described as hogwash, reports circulating in the social media to the effect that Governor Ben Ayade has held a series of meetings with them over local government funds.
Multiple sources close to the HOLGAs stated that contrary to the misleading social media reports, no dime, in form of local government allocation from the federal government, has entered the accounts of local governments in the state since the NFIU policy was introduced.
“Its not true. No kobo has been received by any local government in Cross River since the NFIU was introduced to ensure the so called financial autonomy of the local governments. I don’t know if the situation is peculiar to only the PDP controlled states, but many states controlled by the PDP are are yet to receive an alert in our accounts”, findings revealed.
Sources within HOLGA ranks also spoke in a similar vein. They equally revealed that Governor Ayade did not, at anytime, hold meetings with them over council fund or, sought for such meetings.
“It amused me when I saw the report in one of these social media platforms. We have not received any allocation from the federal government and His Excellency ,Professor Ben Ayade, never held meetings with us or, requested for a meeting. Rather, it was HOLGA that, on two occasions, requested for a meeting with him which he turned down, asking us to face our work instead. I wonder why some people relish fake report,” an insider source said.
Another simply dismissed the report with the wave of the hand. “Let them produce video or picture footage showing HOLGA’s meetings with Professor Ayade to convince their readers. Of course, there was no meeting with him.The reports should rather be that Ayade rebuffed HOLGA because he, indeed, refused to meet with us,” he said.
