‘I met no official car in govt house, Ortom left me with N187bn debt,’ Benue gov, Hyacinth Alia alleges
Benue state governor, Hyacinth Alia, on Thursday, June 8, lamented the alleged massive looting of the government house in Makurdi, the state capital, by the immediate past administration led by Samuel Ortom.
Alia noted that he was left with no official car in the government house after Ortom handed over to him.
The governor also stated that he inherited an empty treasury and a whooping huge debt profile of N187.56 billion accompanied by accumulated months of unpaid salaries and entitlements of civil servants and pensioners in the state.
The governor made this known in a statement issued by his chief press secretary, Tersoo Kula.
The statement reads, “The government house was looted to a point that the new government under Governor Hyacinth Alia, met no single car or truck in government house.
“The governor’s visits to agencies and parastatals have uncovered the highest level of rot ever witnessed in the history of Benue state.
“The same party that left an empty treasury in the state and ripped off the economic system of the people is now claiming to be standing on high moral grounds to offer untenable and ill-motivated criticisms to undermine the collective wisdom of the Benue populace.”
Alia also accused Ortom for leaving his administration with huge debt profile, arguing that the the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should apologize to the people of the state.
He said that, “The PDP is not ignorant of the fact that all the appointments and recruitments that were carried out by former governor, Samuel Ortom, at the twilight of his administration were not done in good faith.
“Is it not curious that for more than seven years, Ortom could not employ indigines of the state into the civil service, until a few months before the expiration of his tenure?
“It is even more ironic that the PDP, which is now a crying wolf, left the government house owing salaries of civil servants from December 2022 to May 2023.
“The same PDP administration left salary arrears of five months for state government workers in 2017, 10 months for local government workers in the same year, 2017.
“Under this same PDP government, pensions were last paid in the year 2021,” the governor added.
