The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has warned state governments not to tamper with or divert the bailout funds released for their respective states by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the immediate payment of workers' salaries.

The commission said it would monitor the funds and how they are utilised in all the states that benefit from the bailout. Of N338 billion set aside by the CBN to bailout states with unpaid workers' salaries, N114.662 billion has been disbursed to 11 states of the federation.

The states that have received the funds are Osun, Zamfara, Kwara, Adamawa, Abia, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, Ondo, Kebbi and Niger. Sixteen other states, which applied for the bailout will access the special intervention fund once they meet the criteria stipulated by the CBN.

Warning against the misappropriation of the funds at the commission's headquarters yesterday, the ICPC Chairman, Mr. Ekpo Nta, said the commission's interest in the disbursement of the funds was for the good of workers which it said had been owed by their respective states for several months.

He vowed to ensure that the bailout funds are released for the purpose for which the CBN with the approval of the National Economic Council (NEC) offered the special intervention fund.

He spoke while handing over different sums of monies amounting to N980 million which was embezzled from the Federal Ministry of Environment and federal government colleges in Ogun State to the institutions.

Nta said the warning to the state governors resulted from feedback from some states that the bailout funds were being diverted. He said the bailout funds belonged to the federal government and no state government had the right to misappropriate it, while not directly using it to pay the backlog of salaries of workers they owed.

"We understand that the bailout funds released to states by the federal government have not been going to the proper channels. It is important to state here today that the bailout is from the federal government to the states to assist them in paying the salaries of workers.

"We will from now on be following how the funds are disbursed in different states to ensure that they get to the appropriate beneficiaries. This is because they are government funds," he said.