The Benue State government has accessed the immediate past governor of the state Samuel Ortom of operating 600 bank accounts with state resources which prompted the new governor to freeze all the state government accounts after inception.
Michael Oglegba, the Commissioner for Finance and Budget Planning disclosed the figures when the Chapel members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in his office in Makurdi, the capital of the state.
He alleged that the Ortom government presented just 25 accounts belonging to the state, but the information found on the Nigerian interbank system revealed contrary information which brought the figures to 600.
“When we came in, we asked for the accounts and bank statements and we were presented with about 25 bank accounts. A casual look at the Nigerian Inter-Bank System showed that the Benue Government had more than 600 accounts. So the Governor needed to freeze those accounts to know exactly what was happening,” he said.
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Speaking on the debt profile of the state the commissioner noted that “The debts owed by the state itself was in excess of N200bn. This includes local and foreign debts. However, the LGAs also have their own debts, unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities and local contractors that made up the other N150bn.
“So the Alia administration has no reason to lie about the state debts. We will be doing ourselves a great disservice if we say we own monies that we do not own. When we need loans for example who will give us?”
ORTOM REACTS
Reacting to the allegation, the former governor through his media aide Terver Akase, noted that the statement government was selling a false narrative to the citizens. “The present government of Benue State is selling a narrative to unsuspecting people of the state that they inherited N359 billion as debt from the previous government led by Chief Ortom.
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“This narrative is not only false but is also a deliberate stratagem to snooker the people. Curiously, this same government told the people via a statement by Governor Alia’s Chief Press Secretary in June this year, that Governor Ortom handed N187.56 billion to them as debt, which was the same amount the former governor mentioned while presenting handover notes to his successor. What the present government is saying about the state debts now contradicts their previous statement.”
Akase also noted that the present government was yet to explain if the present government had received all the funds it was expecting before the exit of the former governor.
Some of the funds expected according to him were Backlog of accumulated Stamp Duties – N48 billion, Refund from Debt Swap with Federal Government – N22.95 billion. “It should also be noted that owing to the efforts of the Ortom administration, Benue State by May 29, 2023, had outstanding approvals awaiting disbursement from the federal government including the balance of Bailout – N41 billion and a N20 billion Central Bank of Nigeria facility. He said.
“At the same time, the Benue state government was expecting N9 billion as a refund on withdrawals for subsidy and SURE-P. The Alia administration has yet to tell the people if it has already received the N9 billion SURE-P funds.”
