Benue Govt: Ex-Gov Ortom accused of hiding over 570 bank accounts

The Benue State government has accused the administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom of operating more than 600 bank accounts for the state but only 25 were released to his successor, Father Hyacinth Alia.

Michael Oglegba, the Commissioner for Finance and Budget Planning in a chat with the State Correspondents’ Chapel members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) disclosed that is the reason the state's bank accounts were frozen when the new administration assumed office.

The Commissioner of Finance said the current governor was shown only 25 accounts when he took over office but information at the Nigerian Inter Bank System, however, showed that the state had over 600 accounts.

“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 Inter Bank System showed that Benue Government had more than 600 accounts.

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

Oglegba while commenting on the state debts profile, insisted that the Alia government inherited over a billion debts which included that of the Local Government Arrears.

He said, “The debts owed by the state itself were in excess of N200billion. 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 N150billion.

“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 own monies that we do not own. When we need loans for example who will give us?”

NBA