Cheques Issued By Imo State Govt To Workers Bounce

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