Benue outgoing governor, Ortom hands over N187 billion to governor-elect

Benue State outgoing governor, Samuel Ortom on Sunday handed over the baton of leadership to the incoming governor, Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia.

In his address at the handing over ceremony at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi, Ortom disclosed that he is handing over the sum of N187 billion debt to the incoming governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, being salary arrears, loans, contractual obligations, and others.

According to Ortom’s handover summary, a total sum of N734.9 billion was accrued to the state throughout his eight years, adding that the expenditure and others gulped N735.6 billion admitting that the debt situation of the state was on the high side.

“This handover note contained not only structure but activities of my eight years of administration. It has sectoral briefs of the agencies, ministries, and departments.

“It contains three volumes; volume one is the handover of all MDAs, volume two comprises of policy document of my administration, (the Benue development plan) the part b is the comprehensive briefs submitted by ministries and agencies and part three contained highlights of debt profile and pension.

“The revenue and income from all sources; federation account, Value Added Tax, grants, loans, and others stand at N734.9 billion as of the end of April while the expenditure stand at N735.6 billion as of the end of April.
“The Indebtedness of the state which comprises salary arrears, pension, contractual obligations, and others is N187 billion.

“The debt situation of the state might appear on the high side but the government had taken significant steps to reduce this through debt swap with the federal government.

Ortom informed the incoming governor to make use of the opportunities of funds that will soon be available for him such as the backlog of stamp duty and N61 billion loan facilities from the Central Bank of Nigeria for smooth take-off.