Ortom, Alia trade words over Benue finances, salary arrears

Samuel Ortom, former Benue State Governor, has insisted his Administration was anchored on transparency and accountability throughout its eight-year tenure, noting that all government accounts were audited annually and the reports published in national newspapers.

Ortom disclosed this on Tuesday when he hosted members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Benue State Council, to a breakfast at his residence in Makurdi to speak to them on recent accusations levelled against him by Governor Hyacinth Alia and the current state of governance in the State.

He said the overall audit report covering his Administration was gazetted following its approval by the Benue State House of Assembly, as stipulated by law.

“All financial records from my time in office are intact and available for verification by relevant authorities”, Ortom stated.

Challenging Governor Alia, he said: “If Governor Alia is confident in the report he has been circulating, he should be ready to present facts and figures in a public forum. Let us meet at a debate where both sides can lay out their records for the people to judge.”

Addressing the specific allegation of N139.8 billion misappropriation, Ortom accused the Alia’s Administration of relying on imaginary records and attempting to witch-hunt him without proof. He argued that such claims lack substance and are aimed at using him as a scapegoat to divert attention.

The former governor urged Governor Alia to take the matter to court if he believes there is a case, rather than seeking cheap popularity through media trials. “The proper place to test such allegations is in a court of law, not in the public space without evidence,” he said.

Ortom also raised concerns over resources available to the current administration. He said the Alia’s Government had received about N1.3 trillion, an amount he said is five times greater than what accrued to the State during his eight-year tenure.

He accused Governor Alia of using funds accruing to the State to buy political structures, saying he would make evidence available in due course.

“What has accrued to the state in three years has surpassed what we got in the whole eight years of my administration, where only N8.017 billion came into our coffers,” Ortom said.

“Enough is enough. I can no longer keep quiet. I am going to expose the ills of this administration. For three years, I kept quiet, and so many lies have been told about me. I am going to talk now because silence at times means consent.”

He called on Alia to refocus on his campaign promises, which include clearing salary arrears, paying pensions and gratuities, and returning Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, to their ancestral homes, instead of diverting attention.

In a swift reaction, Governor Alia, speaking through Tersoo Kula, his Chief Press Secretary, dismissed Ortom’s claim that the Income and Expenditure Commission of Inquiry is a witch-hunt. He said Governor Alia is not pursuing any vendetta and Ortom “should be truthful at least for once.”

The governor said handover notes are meant to be studied, and when lapses are discovered, a legitimate authority must be invited to unravel the grey areas.

“That is exactly what Governor Alia did. In any case, this is not the first time a commission of inquiry has probed the activities of a previous administration. Ortom constituted one that probed his predecessor, Sen. Gabriel Suswam,” the statement said.

“Ortom needs to tell Benue and Nigerians why he felt very comfortable probing his predecessor, but he is not comfortable that he should be probed.”

The government faulted Ortom’s claim that the Commission ignored pending court matters, saying the commission that delivered its verdict is different from the one he challenged in court.

“Evidence is there that he was severally invited to appear before the commission and clear his name, and he sent his lawyers who appeared for him. Most of his appointees, including his former Chief Press Secretary and later Adviser on Media, Terver Akase, also appeared and were given a fair hearing,” it stated.

The government said no person with a conscience would ignore the “mess” it met on the ground: seven months of unpaid salaries for state workers, 11 months for local government workers and teachers, over 76 months of unpaid pensions and gratuities, a heavy debt burden and questionable records.

On Ortom’s challenge over N1.3 trillion, the Benue State Government said the former governor lacks economic perspective: “How much was a litre of fuel when he was governor and how much is it now? How much was a bag of cement, and how much is it now? How much was a kilometre of road and how much is it now?”

It added that “a day hardly passes without garnishee orders raining in the state” as a result of “shoddy handling of issues and blatant disregard to procedure, which was the hallmark of that infamous administration Benue people termed, ‘years of the locusts’.”