By Joseph Uchenna, in Makurdi
The former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has debunked as ‘false’ and ‘mischievous’ insinuations that his administration was releasing N1million only to local governments in the state as security vote.
Media aide to Chief Ortom Terver Akase in a statement made available to the media on Tuesday, that the rebuttal comes on the heels of claims by a faction of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the State, an excerpt of which the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Hyacinth Alia gleefully posted online.
He said the APC statement claimed, without any evidence, that the governor “has increased local government security votes from the one million naira paid by his predecessor to ten million naira monthly”
Ortom alleged as curious the fact that Governor Alia, who is in his third year in office, has never responded to calls for transparency and accountability regarding the huge resources accruing to the state following the removal of fuel subsidy, suddenly decided to celebrate a claim that he has increased security votes for local governments in the state.
Said he, “The starting point should be for Governor Alia to declare how much he is receiving as monthly local government allocations from the federation’s account before announcing how much he is giving the councils as security votes.
“The governor should go a step further and explain why, despite the Supreme Court judgment granting full financial autonomy to local governments, he is still the one providing them with funds in the form of handouts and has refused to implement the autonomy for the councils. The fact that none of the 23 local governments under him has constructed even a single culvert shows how they have been starved of their own funds.
“The question to ask Governor Alia is: given reports that the Federal Government is now sending 500% increased allocations to the local governments in Benue State, automatically making a council such as Gboko to receive a monthly allocation of N624,447,191.53, why is Gboko only receiving a mere N10 million out of over N624 million as security vote? Where is the rest of the money going?
“When the Benue State governor is done accounting for how much the 23 local governments are receiving from the federation’s account in the subsidy removal era, he should extend the accountability to the state coffers and tell the people how much his government is receiving and what is being done with the funds. This explanation should include the over N3 billion he is reported to be taking every month as security vote in the face of frequent attacks and killing of hundreds of Benue people by Fulani terrorists.
“It is false and mischievous to insinuate that the previous administration was releasing N1 million to local governments in the state as security vote. Governor Samuel Ortom granted autonomy to the local governments; that was why all of the councils were actively executing projects and tackling insecurity in their domains. There was, therefore, no question of giving them a part of their resources as security votes, as they were in control of their resources, a policy the current administration has since reversed.
“Once again, we advise Governor Alia and his appointees to desist from using his predecessor as a shield against genuine demands for transparency and accountability from the people of Benue. He should answer the questions being asked by members of the public regarding his handling of the state resources at his disposal”.
