October 25, (THEWILL) – An Aide to the former Benue state governor, says he read a newspaper report in which the Benue State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and Public Order, Barr. Fidelis Mnyim was quoted to have said the Alia administration inherited a debt profile of over N14 billion as consent judgment from the immediate past government of Chief Samuel Ortom.
“What the Justice Commissioner said was one in a series of media outings by the Alia administration aimed at dragging the name of the former Governor and his administration to disrepute”.
Terver Akase, Media Aide to former governor Ortom, noted with dismay that, the present government is quick to publish unsubstantiated figures in the media only to accuse the previous administration without giving evidence to back their claims.
“The sole intention is to cast Chief Ortom and his government in dark colours, make political capital out of every issue while evading public scrutiny”.
According to Akase, it should be noted that most of the issues raised by the Commissioner for Justice are from pensions and gratuity cases; arguing that it is on record that the Ortom administration inherited arrears of pension and gratuity which cut across several past administrations and the court cases filed by the pensioners were still pending when Chief Ortom assumed office in 2015.
“To ameliorate the situation in his usual humanitarian disposition, Governor Ortom decided that the senior citizens had served the state meritoriously so his government would not enter defence against them in court, and he opted for an amicable resolution of the cases”.
Mr Akase explained that the State Government had an agreement with the retirees and was paying their arrears of pensions and gratuities as funds permitted, even as the economic situation in the country was severe with federal allocations to states at their lowest since 1999 and Nigeria had plunged into recession at two different times.
“If the present government is complaining about numerous garnishee orders, there is the possibility that it has defaulted on the payment arrangement that the Ortom administration made with the pensioners and the retirees have returned to the courts”.
He insists that the current Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Fidelis Mnyim served as counsel to some persons who took the Benue State Government to court and ought to have told the media if the case he handled was among the garnishee orders resulting in the N14 billion that he claimed.
The statement quotes former governor Ortom as appealing to Governor Alia to take advantage of the huge funds available to his administration accruing from the federation’s account following the removal of fuel subsidy, to address development challenges.
It added that when a new government assumes power, it inherits both assets and liabilities as Ortom, like his predecessors, inherited similar financial obligations on assumption of office.
It will be recalled that on Tuesday, the Justice Commissioner while playing host to members of the Correspondents Chapel of the NUJ, Benue state council, alleged to have inherited over N14bn consent judgement debt from the past administration of Governor Samuel Ortom.
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