I met N187.56 billion debt, empty treasury -Alia
By Brenda Agba
The Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia has disclosed that he met a staggering debt of N187.56 billion and an empty treasury, accompanied by accumulated months of unpaid salaries as well as entitlements of civil servants and pensioners.
Governor Alia made this known in a press statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Tersoo Kula and made available to news men in response to the call by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state that he should reverse his decision that led to the nullification of the last minute appointments made by his predecessor.
“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 criticism to undermine the collective wisdom of the Benue populace
“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 indigenes 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 crying wolf, left the Government House owing salaries of Benue 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 statement read.
According to the statement, the governor also lamented the massive looting of the Government House in Makurdi by the immediate past administration noting that he was left with no single official car.
Meanwhile, the governor’s visits to agencies and parastatals have uncovered the highest level of rot ever witnessed in the history of the state.
