Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, and his predecessor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, on Sunday exchanged words over the N100 billion loan recently approved by the state House of Assembly for infrastructural development.
During an emergency plenary session held last Friday, the Assembly approved the governor’s request to obtain the N100 billion facility to finance various projects across the state.
According to the governor, the loan would be channelled into the renovation and equipping of the 23 General Hospitals in the state, renovation and construction of science schools, completion of ongoing road, bridge, drainage and electricity projects, as well as the building of skill acquisition centres.
Other projects listed include the construction and equipping of smart schools across the 11 federal constituencies, and the establishment of the Benue State University of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Ihugh, among others.
The state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), through its Publicity Secretary, Tim Nyor, condemned the Assembly’s approval, saying the Alia administration had already received “huge resources” from federal allocations since assuming office.
In response, Governor Alia, through his Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, accused the PDP and its leader, Ortom, of hypocrisy, saying the former governor ‘democratised poverty’ during his tenure by failing to pay salaries and pensions.
Alia described Ortom’s eight-year administration as ‘a colossal failure’ that left behind a legacy of unpaid wages, abandoned projects, and massive debts.
‘For the avoidance of doubt, the PDP-led administration, especially that of Samuel Ortom, by their own admission, left behind a staggering direct debt burden of N187.7 billion, a weight that has constrained the state’s finances and development capacity’, Alia said in the statement.
‘This administration later discovered that the figure was grossly understated and uncovered another N170 billion owed through local government councils. It is unbelievable that Ortom’s administration accumulated this humongous debt yet refused to pay civil servants and pensioners their entitlements.
‘Furthermore, it is shocking that the Ortom government, after receiving several financial interventions from the Federal Government—including bailout funds, LNG funds, two tranches of the Paris Club refund, and unexplained direct borrowings—still handed over to Fr. Alia a debt profile of N187.7 billion, 12 months’ arrears of salaries for state civil servants, 10 months’ arrears for local government staff, about 36 months’ pension arrears, and collapsed infrastructure across the state, bringing the total debt to ₦359 billion’, the statement read.
But in a swift reaction, Ortom, through his media aide, Terver Akase, accused Governor Alia of deflecting attention from legitimate concerns raised by the opposition about transparency and financial accountability.
The ever-lingering Benue/Plateau crisis
He said despite a more than 500 per cent increase in federal allocations to Benue since May 2023, the Alia administration had not demonstrated prudent use of the funds, while other states had cleared inherited debts and arrears.
Ortom noted that as of the time he left office, there were pending approvals for disbursement from the Federal Government, including the balance of a N41 billion bailout fund and a N20 billion Central Bank of Nigeria facility.
He also said the state was expecting several billions of naira in refunds from subsidy withdrawals and the SURE-P programme.
The former governor challenged Alia to tell Benue people whether his administration had received the SURE-P refund and how it was being utilised.
He also faulted the award of a N68.3bn contract for the rehabilitation of a 13-kilometre road from Wurukum Roundabout to the Air Force Base in Makurdi, describing it as ‘outrageously inflated’.
‘To date, the Alia government has not provided any explanation regarding this project’, Ortom said. ‘The government has similarly kept sealed lips on questions surrounding the N73 billion reportedly approved for a road project leading to the governor’s village in Mbadede, Vandeikya Local Government Area’.
He added, ‘Each time Governor Alia is confronted with questions bordering on transparency or the welfare of Benue people, his reflex action is to attack Chief Ortom instead of providing facts and figures.
‘This pattern of behaviour smacks of an administration that is averse to probity and intent on evading responsibility for explaining how public funds are being managed’.
Ortom called on the governor to account for the ‘huge revenues’ accrued to the state since he assumed office.
‘Why the secrecy surrounding the state’s finances?’ he asked. ‘Rather than address these legitimate concerns, Governor Alia has chosen the path of diversion, resorting to insults, half-truths, and false claims about Chief Ortom, whose stewardship as governor remains one of selfless service, transparency, good governance, and courage in defending the people of Benue State, particularly in the face of grave security challenges’.
