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The immediate past governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has called on his successor, Governor Hyacinth Alia, to account for the state and local government funds.
The former governor was reacting to the statement attributed to a faction of the All Progressives Congress, which he suspects is affiliated with the governor, an excerpt of which Kula Tersoo, media aide to Governor Alia, posted online recently.
This statement read that the governor “has increased local government security votes from the one million naira paid by his predecessor to ten million naira monthly…”
However, Ortom in a statement issued by his media aide, Terver Akase, and made available to journalists in Makurdi on Tuesday, took a swipe at his successor, requesting that he declares how much his administration is receiving as monthly local government allocations from the federation’s account before announcing how much he is giving the councils as security votes.
Ortom equally demanded that Governor Alia should go a step further and explain why he is still the one providing the third tier of government funds, despite the Supreme Court judgment granting full financial autonomy to local governments.
“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 former governor said.
The former governor decried the situation that his successor, who is in his third year in office had never responded to calls for transparency and accountability regarding the huge resources accruing to the state following the removal of fuel subsidy.
“He has suddenly decided to celebrate a claim that he has increased security votes for local governments in the state.
“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 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, which automatically makes a council such as Gboko 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.
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“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.
While Alia denied that under his watch, only N1 million was being released to local governments in the state as security vote, Ortom claimed that he granted autonomy to the local governments.
He said that was the reason all of the councils were actively executing projects and tackling insecurity in their respective domains.
Alia, through his Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, on Sunday, responding to a similar request made by a group known as Benue Advocacy Network, directed those interested in knowing the financial obligations to the state to approach the Budget Office in the state.
