Governor-elect for Benue State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has said that he’s not sure whether he will probe his predecessor, Governor Samuel Ortom on the awful way he runs the State government.
Answering reporters’ questions today, April 5, shortly after a private audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential villa, Abuja, the Governor elect said that he will be inheriting a badly managed state when he formally assume office on May 29, 2023.
According to him, the state’s civil service is in a state of near collapse and in “Intensive Care Unit” (ICU).
“I have come to infuse life into it and keep it moving.”
He said that he had not looked at the books of the Ortom government to know the extent of the damage to the State, saying: “so I wouldn’t want to be quite pre-emptive. Once I’m sworn in, I know that what the good people of Benue want is progress and development.
“There is so much that we need to put on track for things to work. Benue state is an agrarian zone and so we must focus on agriculture and upgrade it.
“Benue is very capable of feeding the whole nation; so we are not just the food basket of the nation by name and I am hoping that we will up our game in agriculture and take care of the rest as well.
“It is sad that the civil service in the state is near collapse, it is in the ICU. I just need to get in there and infuse life in it and keep it moving.
“We have a lot of backlog of unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities. Already I got much on the desk to keep a good focus on and I remain hopeful that I am going to do just that.”
The Governor elect had earlier written a letter to the Benue Investment Property Company, warning the officials against colluding with the incumbent governor on some financial transactions.
