By Francis Ugwu
Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has alleged there was massive looting of the government house in Makurdi by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, under the watch of former Governor Samuel Ortom.
Alia alleged that he met no single official car or a truck to operate with as they were all carted away.
In a statement issued on Thursday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Tersoo Kula, the governor stated that his decision to sweep away all last-minute appointments made by the former governor remains irreversible.
The statement is coming on the heels of calls by the PDP in the state that Alia should reverse his decision that led to the nullification of all last-minute appointments made by Ortom.
But Alia urged the PDP to seek forgiveness from the people of the state and stop playing to the gallery, claiming it had imposed untold pain and penury on the people.
The governor disclosed that he inherited an empty treasury and a whopping huge debt profile of N187.56 billion accompanied by accumulated months of unpaid salaries and entitlements of civil servants and pensioners in the state.
“The PDP looted Government House to a point that the new government under Governor Hyacinth Alia, met no single car or truck in Government House. The governor’s visits to agencies and parastatals have uncovered the highest level of rot ever witnessed in the history of Benue State”.
“The same party that left an empty treasury in the state and ripped off the economic system of the people is now claiming to be standing on high moral grounds to offer untenable and ill-motivated criticisms to undermine the collective wisdom of the Benue populace.
“The level of decay caused by the immediate past administration stinks in the severely vandalized offices of state civil servants, such that the new government must have to start from scratch to acquire the necessary equipment for the system to start working again,” part of the statement read.
