Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia and his predecessor, Samuel Ortom, clashed on Sunday over a ₦100 billion loan approved by the State House of Assembly.
During an emergency plenary last Friday, the House approved the governor’s request for a ₦100 billion loan to fund infrastructure projects across the state.
The loan will be used to renovate and equip 23 general hospitals, build science schools, and complete ongoing road, bridge, drainage, and electricity projects.
The project includes skills acquisition centers, smart schools in all federal constituencies, and the Benue State University of Agriculture, Science, and Technology, Ihugh.
The State chapter of the Peoples Party, led by Publicity Secretary Tim Nyor, condemned the loan approval, claiming that the Alia administration had already received it.
“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 ₦187.7 billion, a weight that has constrained the state’s finances and development capacity.
“This administration later discovered that the figure was grossly understated and uncovered an additional ₦170 billion owed through local government areas. It is unbelievable that Ortom’s administration accumulated this humongous debt and still 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, and two tranches of the Paris Club debt refund—alongside unexplained direct borrowing, still handed over to Fr. Alia a debt profile of ₦187.7 billion, twelve months’ arrears of salaries for state civil servants, ten months’ arrears for local government staff, about thirty-six months’ pension arrears, and a landscape of collapsed infrastructure across the state, bringing the total debt to ₦359 billion,” the statement read.
Ortom claimed that despite a more than 500 percent increase in federal funding for Benue, Alia had failed to make substantial progress, instead choosing to compare himself to his predecessor.
When he left office, the Federal Government did not have to disburse approvals, such as the remaining ₦41 billion bailout fund and a ₦20 billion Central Bank of Nigeria facility.
Ortom stated that the state was expecting refunds of billions of naira for subsidy withdrawals and SURE-P funds.
He also claimed that Alia had not informed Benue residents about the SURE-P funds or their use.
Additionally, Ortom criticized Alia for failing to explain the award of a ₦68.3 billion contract to the Air Force for the rehabilitation of a 13-kilometer road from Wurukum Roundabout.
“To date, the Alia government has not provided any explanation in response to the concerns raised. The government has similarly kept sealed lips on probing questions regarding the ₦73 billion reportedly approved for a road project leading to the governor’s village in Mbadede, Vandeikya Local Government Area.
“Each time Governor Alia is confronted with questions bordering on transparency in governance or the welfare of Benue people, his reflex action is to attack Chief Ortom instead of providing facts and figures.
“This pattern of behavior, now clearly habitual, smacks of an administration that is averse to probity and intent on evading the responsibility of explaining how public funds are being managed,” Ortom said.
Ortom further challenged Alia to explain how the state’s massive revenues accrued since May 29, 2023, had been spent.
“Why the secrecy surrounding the state’s finances? And why the desperate attempt to silence anyone who dares to ask these questions?
“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,” the statement added.
