The last may not have been heard about the disbursement of the Federal Government bailout fund in Imo State, as cheques issued to scores of workers employed under the state government’s Youths Must Work Programme allegedly bounced.
Some of the youths that spoke to Vanguard yesterday in Owerri, claimed that the cheques they collected last Wednesday, could not be cleared.
“We were obviously happy when we were handed the cheques for our unpaid stipends. Our happiness was however short-lived as our respective banks returned the cheques as uncleared effects”, one of the aggrieved youths said.
While the affected youths expressed fears about what they called “the seriousness of government to clear their arrears of stipends”, Vanguard however gathered the cheques issued to a fraction of the angry, hungry youths, sailed through.
While cross-examining the complainants, they affirmed that they had properly informed their heads of department about their present predicament.
“We were only advised to continue listening to the radio, where any further instruction would be aired. This is a sad day for us,” the youths chorused.
When Vanguard visited one of commercial banks for clarification, a staff that spoke on strict grounds of anonymity, confirmed that “there was a definite instruction from government to stop honouring the cheques.”
All efforts made to extract further information from the banker failed as he simply said: “That is the much you can hear from me. Just make sure that I will not read my name in your paper tomorrow.” Vanguard
