FG denies spending N1.5bn on hotels for ILO delegates

The Presidency has faulted viral reports that the Federal Government sponsored 289 delegates to the just concluded International Labour Organisation conference that held in Geneva, Switzerland.

It also refuted the claim that N1.5bn was spent on hotel accommodation and other logistics for the delegates.

The rebuttal was made by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in an interview with The According on Monday.

“Why not analyse the list and tell us how many of the delegates were specifically sponsored by the government? Of course, one can see that NECA officials, labour delegates and other private persons were on that list.

“A lot of people came there on their own. That should tell you that it was not all of them that were sponsored by the FG,” Onanuga said.

The social media was awash days ago with reports that Nigeria had the highest number of delegates at the ILO conference.

A list published on the website of the ILO also confirmed that the country had the largest delegation among the 187 countries represented at the event.

Brazil and Argentina emerged second and third behind Nigeria with 191 and 156 delegates respectively.

The Nigerian contingent comprised the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; Olabode Agoro, Lagos Head of Service; permanent secretaries, several top shots from the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association as well as officials from Chevron, TotalEnergies and representatives of other private bodies.

In the category of workers’ delegates, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero; the President of the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo, and scores of labour leaders were listed.

The document also listed 116 others under the worker’s delegates, while two were identified as ‘persons accompanying the minister.’

Speaking with The According, Onanuga stated that it would be unfair for anybody to label the Federal Government as being the sponsor of the entire 289 delegates.