How Ortom emptied Govt House, left N187.56bn debt, huge unpaid salaries, pensions – Gov Alia

Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has raised an alarm, alleging that the administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom “massively looted” the Government House, Makurdi. He cried out that he met no single official car or a truck to work with, adding that they were all taken away by the former government officials.
Governor Alia said that he inherited an empty treasury, a whooping huge debt profile of N187.56 billion, and accumulated months of unpaid salaries, entitlements of civil servants and pensioners.
Governor Alia berated the State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for telling him to reverse his decision of upturning all last-minute appointments made by Former Governor Ortom, arguing that they were legally employed. The governor told the PDP to ask for forgiveness from people of Benue State and stop playing to the gallery, saying that the PDP imposed untold pains and penury on the people.
Governor Alia said that former Governor Ortom left behind six months of unpaid salaries of civil servants – December 2022 to May 2023 – in addition to five months arrears for state government workers in 2017, including 10 months for local government workers in 2017, and pensions, lamenting that the pensioners were last paid in 2021.
Governor Alia had declared: “the PDP looted Government House 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.
“The level of decay caused by the immediate past administration stinks in the severely vandalized offices of state civil servants, such that the new government must have to start from scratch to acquire the necessary equipment for the system to start working again”.
The governor urged the people of the state not to despair over his recent actions, noting that he wants to sanitise the rotten system created by the former administration.

* Channels Television