The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress have written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to probe states that did not pay salaries with the first tranche of the N516bn Paris Club loan refund, Punch reports.

TUC President, Bobboi Kaigama said, “We have asked the ICPC and the EFCC to probe those states; we already called for their probe. The call we made to the EFCC and ICPC is not only for the first tranche, but subsequent tranches.

“The anti-graft agencies and the TUC have been interacting well on the probe.

“We are working with the Federal Government which directed that the fund be used first for the payment of arrears and pensions before the states do anything else. So if the states do anything else, it would be contrary to the directive.

“We have been liaising with the anti-corruption agencies to make sure that they follow these disbursements. We also ask our TUC state levels to monitor the disbursements.”

The NLC Secretary, Ozo-Eson added, “We have involved the anti-corruption agencies. From the first bailout, we partnered the ICPC to monitor the funds and we expect this to continue. Our directive to the NLC state councils is to also monitor the funds and ensure that the payment of arrears of salaries and pensions take priority.”

The federal and state governments had, in December 2016, agreed that states should use  50 per cent of the refund to settle salary and pension arrears when the fund was released.

The EFCC had earlier started investigating the Nigerian Governors’ Forum in connection with the N516bn Paris Club loan refund to the states.

Azeez