By Amos Aar
THE BENUE State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded Governor Hyacinth Alia to come clean on allegations that he had squandered over 46 billion within a short time in office without tangible achievements on ground in order to fulfil his sworn duty of accountability and transparency to the people.
PDP State Publicity Secretary, Chief Bemgba Iortyom, said at a press conference in Makurdi that the party is concerned over mounting allegations of duplication of contractual payments and other huge expenditures made against Governor Hyacinth Alia from various public sources.
Iortyom observed that over the past few days, the media space had been awash with publications from various news media alleging that the Benue State governor has squandered over N46 billion on questionable purposes that do not align with the principles of good governance.
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Iortyom mentioned some online news platforms such as Sahara Reporters and Nigerian Concord that have in separate publications given details of expenditure by Governor Alia running into tens of billions of naira in what appears to be duplication of contracts, refurbished “palliative” vehicles, travel expenses, hotel accommodations, purchase of vehicles, cost of running Government House, Makurdi and catering for guests and other sundry purposes.
“A summary of the allegations of questionable expenditure of public funds by Governor Alia as reported by different media outlets include that; between May 29th and September 30th, 2023, Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has spent more than N46 billion of state resources on various purposes, prominent among which are expenses for duplicated contracts, his travels, vehicles, hotel bills, cost of running Government House etc”, Iortyom said.
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Meanwhile, National Record has observed that security surveillance at the Government House, Makurdi has been intensified since the publication of the alleged N2 billion reckless spending by Governor Alia on the purchase of official vehicles.
Ms Priscilla Nenger, a reporter with Sunrays FM, Korinya, who is on the governor’s press crew was arrested along side a man said to be her colleague at Aper Aku Lodge, Government House, on Wednesday when the State Executive Council (SEC) meeting was ongoing. They were said to have been watched on Close Circuit (CC) TV camera, snapping vehicles purchased by the state government according a member of the press crew who confided in National Record on Friday.
According to the source, Government House security personnel who arrested the two journalists on the orders of the Chief Security Officer (CSO) took them to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Tersoo Kula, who tried to intervene to no avail before they were moved to police A Division , Makurdi and were detained on the alleged orders of Governor Alia until Thursday last week.
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The insider added that Ms Priscilla and her colleague were bailed from A Division but were further detained in a cell at the Government House pending the return of the governor from a trip to decide on the next line of action.
The phones of the two journalists were allegedly seized since Thursday, a situation which reportedly caused the duo more problems when the security operatives were said to have discovered pictures and news reports about the PDP Governorship candidate in the last election, Mr Titus Uba, as well as reports of Sahara Reporters about Governor Alia’s alleged reckless spending.
