By John Charles
The immediate-past governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, on Tuesday, accused his successor, Governor Hyacinth Alia, of spreading falsehood regarding the state’s debt profile.
Ortom described as false, claims that Alia inherited a debt profile of N359bn.
Alia had at the weekend during an occasion in Abuja said Ortom left N359bn debt behind.
“You will be shocked to hear that some people in the local government were owed for up to five years. The least we recorded were people who were owed up to four months,” Alia had said.
But reacting on Tuesday in a statement by his media aide, Terver Akase, Ortom accused Alia of spreading falsehood.
“The present government of Benue State is selling a narrative to unsuspecting people of the state that they inherited N359bn as debt from the previous government led by Chief Ortom. This narrative is not only false but it 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 N187.56bn 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,” Ortom’ s aide said.
The former governor said that he was explicit in his handover speech that though the debt situation of the state at the time of his exit from office might appear to be on the high side, his administration had taken proactive steps to negotiate and ensure significant debt reduction/reliefs leading to debt swap between Benue State and the Federal Government as facilitated by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
He said the total debt swap for state and local government councils stood at N71.6bn.
“The inflows that Benue State was expecting at the time Governor Ortom was leaving office were: (a) Backlog of accumulated Stamp Duties – N48bn, (b) Refund from Debt Swap with the Federal Government – N22.95bn. Total = N70.95bn.
“When the negotiated debt swap and the expected inflows are discounted, the state was set to attain a significant debt reduction, bringing down its debt profile to N45.2bn.
“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 – N41bn and a N20bn Central Bank of Nigeria facility.
“At the same time, the Benue State government was expecting N9bn as a refund on withdrawals for subsidy and SURE-P. The Alia administration is yet to tell the people if it has already received the N9bn SURE-P funds.
“At the time Governor Ortom was rounding off his stewardship, over N8bn had already been raised under the scheme and Benue State was on the threshold of meeting the conditions for benefitting from the Contributory Pension Scheme, including access to long-term loans and bonds for development projects or defraying existing pension liabilities.”
