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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
The media aide to the former Governor Samuel Ortom, Mr Terver Akase, has accused the Governor Hyacinth Alia administration of bandying figures to discredit his boss.
Akase stated this while reacting to media reports that the administration of Governor Samuel Ortom left a debt of over N14 billion as consent judgment fees.
The Benue State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and public Order, Fidelis Mnyim, during a chat with newsmen on Tuesday, said the present administration inherited a debt profile of over N14 billion as consent judgement from the immediate past government of Chief Samuel Ortom resulting to garnishee of accounts of the state government.
In a statement signed by Mr Akase and made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Wednesday, he noted that “what the Justice Commissioner said was one in a series of media outings by the Alia administration aimed at dragging the name of the former Governor and his administration to disrepute.
“The present government is quick to publish unsubstantiated figures in the media only to accuse the previous administration without giving evidence to back their claims.
“The sole intention is to cast Chief Ortom and his government in dark colours, make political capital out of every issue while evading public scrutiny.”
He noted that most of the issues raised by the Commissioner for Justice are from pensions and gratuity cases.
“It is on record that the Ortom administration inherited arrears of pension and gratuity which cut across several past administrations and the court cases filed by the pensioners were still pending when Chief Ortom assumed office in 2015.
“To ameliorate the situation in his usual humanitarian disposition, Governor Ortom decided that the senior citizens had served the state meritoriously so his government would not enter defense against them in court, and he opted for amicable resolution of the cases.
“The State Government had an agreement with the retirees and was paying their arrears of pensions and gratuities as funds permitted.
“This was even as the economic situation in the country was severe with federal allocations to states at their lowest since 1999 and Nigeria had plunged into recession at two different times.
“If the present government is complaining about numerous garnishee orders, there is the possibility that it has defaulted on the payment arrangement that the Ortom administration made with the pensioners and the retirees have returned to the courts,” he said.
He recalled that the current Commissioner for Justice, Barr Fidelis Mnyim served as counsel to some persons who took the Benue State Government to court and ought to have told the media if the case he handled was among the garnishee orders resulting in the N14 billion that he claimed.
He appealed to Governor Hyacinth Alia to take advantage of the huge funds available to his administration from the federation’s account following the removal of fuel subsidy, to address development challenges in the state.
He said “When a new government assumes power, it inherits both assets and liabilities. Governor Ortom, like his predecessors, inherited similar financial obligations.”
