The Imo State government has denied report that it misappropriated the bailout fund given to the state by the federal government.

In a release made available to newsmen, and signed by the chief press secretary to the governor, Sam Onwuemeodo, the government stated that “The media had reported last week that the Imo State government had misapplied the bailout fund, quoting report to that effect by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related offences Commission (ICPC) which was said to have been signed by one Mustapha Hussain on behalf of the Commissioner for Public Enlightenment in the commission.

The commission did not however state how it arrived at that conclusion but only stated that some transfers were made into certain accounts not related to salaries and emoluments including N2 billion paid into a Government Account; N2 billion paid into an Imo State Project Account and N2 billion transferred into a Microfinance Bank”.

According the statement, the ICPC was right that such monies were paid into the mentioned accounts and the state government had expected the commission to go further to tell the public what such funds paid into those accounts were used for. “The commission became stingy with facts at that point. Again, before the bailout fund, were there no existing accounts government was using to pay salaries? While giving out the bailout funds, was there any specified account that was given that the salaries must be paid from? These are questions that need to be answered since the commission never claimed that the money was paid into private accounts or that the ones paid into the government’s accounts were used for other reasons except paying salaries”.