Alleged missing N139.8bn in Benue: Alia govt using probe to cover three years of failure – Ortom

The camp of former Benue State Governor, Chief Samuel Ortom, has described the report of the Benue State Income and Expenditure Commission of Inquiry as a politically motivated witch-hunt designed to tarnish the image of the immediate past administration.

In a statement issued on Saturday by Ortom’s Media Assistant, Zege Paul Terhide, the former governor’s camp accused Governor Hyacinth Alia’s administration of using the probe exercise to distract attention from what it described as three years of failed governance.

The statement, titled “Alia’s Probe Report: A Desperate Witch-Hunt of Ortom Administration and a Distraction from Three Years of Failed Governance,” alleged that the commission’s report was the culmination of a carefully scripted process intended to indict the Ortom administration.

According to the statement, previous probe panels set up by the Alia administration had been challenged in court, prompting the government to dissolve them and constitute another panel under a different name.

The Ortom camp further argued that there are ongoing legal proceedings, including matters before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, challenging the legitimacy of the probe panels.

“It is therefore astonishing that a government which voluntarily submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the courts would, in the same breath, proceed as though those judicial processes do not exist,” the statement said.

The former governor’s camp accused the Alia administration of abandoning due process in favour of what it described as a media spectacle aimed at achieving through propaganda what it could not achieve through lawful means.

It also alleged that the timing of the report was intended to divert public attention from challenges facing the state, including insecurity, the plight of internally displaced persons, industrial disputes in the education sector and questions surrounding government finances.

The statement claimed that Governor Alia and his aides routinely blame the Ortom administration whenever questions are raised about the performance of the current government.

According to the statement, Ortom remains confident that the financial activities of his administration were conducted in accordance with the law, noting that government accounts were subjected to statutory audits, budgets were regularly presented and approved, and public records were maintained by relevant institutions.

The former governor’s camp maintained that Ortom has nothing to hide and challenged the current administration to focus on explaining its own stewardship rather than pursuing probes of the previous government.

It further urged Benue residents to view the report as a politically motivated attempt to divert attention from the challenges confronting the state.