Benue Govt Insists On Inheriting 600 Bank Accounts, N359Bn Debt From Ortom

Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has claimed that his administration inherited over 600 bank accounts operated by the immediate past administration of Governor Samuel Ortom.

The state commissioner for Finance and Budget Planning, Michael Oglegba, disclosed this yesterday, saying Governor Alia had justifiable cause to freeze all government accounts immediately after taking over from his predecessor

Oglegba spoke when the state Correspondents’ Chapel members paid him a courtesy call in Makurdi, the state capital, stressing that the Governor needed to understand what was on ground.

According to him, the new administration was shown only 25 government accounts operated by the State Government whereas the information at the Nigerian Inter Bank System however showed that the State had over 600 accounts.

He said: “When we came in, we asked for the accounts and bank statements and we were presented with about 25 bank accounts. A causal look at the Nigerian Inter Bank System showed that Benue Government has more than 600 accounts.

“So the governor needed to freeze those accounts to know exactly what was happening.”

Oglegba also said that the State wage bill has drastically reduced following the ongoing audits adding that the process was still ongoing and new figures would be announced when completed.

The Finance Commissioner also gave insight into the State debts profile, revealing that the state government was owning over N359bn including that of the Local Government Areas.

He explained that the state government was owning in excess N200bn while the remaining over N150bn were LGAs debts.

He added: “The debts own 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?.”

The commissioner further disclosed that the handing over notes from the immediate past administration indicated that there were 19,000 pupils and 16,000 teacher but physically they do not exist.

He said that by this figures it was clear that it was one pupil to one teacher.

Oglegba said the Alia administration has done so much within its five months in office without any borrowing.

He said there were ongoing construction of 16 township roads within the State Capital, lightening of Streets, rehabilitation and remodeling of State Assembly Complex, renovation of State Secretariat among others.

He said the State Government has also paid five months salaries in the last four months.

He said all contractors handling government projects in the State were also paid without collecting any loan.

He also urged the correspondents members to always be objective and balance all reports adding that the government needed them to succeed.