Ortom's handover notes full of humongous claims — Benue govt

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Benue State Government has disclosed that the handover notes left by the immediate past Governor of the state, Samuel Ortom, at the end of his tenure in office, were full of humongous claims.

The State Commissioner for Finance and Budget Planning, Michael Oglegba, who revealed this during a courtesy call on him by members of Correspondent chapel in the state, said that what the past administration of Ortom left in his handover notes were; “one teacher to one pupil in the primary school.”

He also stated that against the 25 banks the state claimed to be operating, over 600 bank accounts were discovered.

According to the Commissioner, the handover notes from the immediate past administration indicated that Benue has surpassed the United Nations benchmark of one teacher to 30 pupils in primary schools.

He said, “In the handover notes, they told us that there were 19,000 pupils and 16,000 teachers in our primary schools and the United Nations says the average of a good school is one to 30, meaning one teacher to 30 pupils.

“But in Benue going by their handover notes, what we have was one teacher to approximately one pupil, I think that would have been the best.

“But the big question to ask are; where are these teachers? Where are the pupils? Where have they gone to? Those are take-home questions we should be asking,” the Commissioner said

On the state accounts, the Commissioner disclosed that only 25 government accounts operated by the State Government were shown to the present administration.

He however said that further information at the Nigerian InterBank System showed that the state government had over 600 accounts.

He said, “When we came in, we asked for the accounts and bank statements and we were presented with about 25 bank accounts. A causal look at the Nigerian InterBank System showed that Benue Government has more than 600 accounts.

“So the Governor needed to freeze those accounts to know exactly what was happening.”

Giving further explanation into the controversial debt profile inherited, the Commissioner clarified that the amount was the total debts from the state and local government.

He explained that the state government was owing in excess of N200 billion, adding that the remaining over N150 billion were LGAs debts.

The Commissioner said, “The debts owed by the State itself was in excess of N200bn. This includes local and foreign debts.

“However, the LGAs also have their own debts, unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities and local contractors that made up the other N150bn.

“So the Alia administration has no reason to lie about the state debts. We will be doing ourselves a great disservice if we say we owe monies that we do not own. When we need loans, for example, who will give us?.”

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