By Giwa SHILE
The United Labour Congress (ULC) said on Friday that no labour leader has been found culpable in the alleged misappropriation of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund ( NSITF) money.
The ULC said this in reaction to a statement credited to the Ministry of Labour and Employment that those indicted in the NSITF fraud included leaders nominated by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).
TBI Africa reports that the Minister, Sen. Chris Ngige, had on Feb. 15, 2017, set up an Administrative Panel of Inquiry to investigate an alleged misappropriation of N62.56billion spent in the NSITF between 2011 and 2015.
However, six former directors of the NSITF were indicted and charged to Court by the EFCC, including the NECA representative.
Mr Didi Adodo, ULC’s General Secretary in a statement in Lagos said that it was wrong to mention labour representatives when the EFCC had not indicted them.
”We disagree with the Minister. We want to state that no labour representative was found culpable,” Adodo said.
He said representatives of labour were neither indicted by the EFCC investigations of the Board nor by the subsequent Administrative Panel.
”There is no labour man involved in the alleged fraud. It is a gross misrepresentation of the facts or an outright mischief to have made such generalised statement.
”ULC hopes that the Minister was misquoted in that blanket statement or that he was unmindful of its overall implications before going to the press,” he said.
The congress scribe advised the Minister to equally publish the names of the individuals indicted in the report to avoid raising unnecessary insinuations.
He said the Court records were there for any member of the public that would be interested in the matter to find out those indicted.
He, however, commended efforts made to arrest those involved in the fraud, saying, “workers’ contributions cannot be mismanaged and we keep quiet as a responsible labour centre.’’
Adodo pledged the support of the ULC any effort towards the recovery of the monies as workers constituted the major contributors to the fund.
