By Olanrewaju Ajao Benue state governor Samuel Ortom Wednesday said that all legal and legitimate channels must be explored to make his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam account for his stewardship.
Ortom, who fielded questions from State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja said due process and the rule of law would be observed in the trial of Suswam.
He had during his previous interactions with the State House Press Corps, emphasized the fact that his administration would not hesitate to probe the immediate past administration and also make sure corruption is effectively dealt with.
The Benue governor said he empaneled two different committees to probe into Suswam’s activities between 2007 and 2015.
Asked whether his visit to the President had to do with his predecessor, Ortom said “No, it has nothing to do with the case of my predecessor. The law will take its course. We know that just like the federal government and my government we believe in the rule of law and due process. That has nothing to do with my predecessor, I am handling the matter in a legitimate manner; it has to do with the rule of law and due process.
“I set up two panels: one judicial panel to verify the income expenditure from 2007 to 2015 and also a panel to verify the assets of government so that we can get things in the right perspective. I met a deficit treasury and the people of Benue state want to know what happened to their money: what happened with the SURE-P money; what went wrong with the excess crude money that came to Benue state; what went wrong with the shares of government in various corporations that were sold. Where did the money go? These are questions that are begging for answers, which the people of Benue state told me to verify and am doing that.
“My predecessor went to court and stopped the process with an injunction and we have also made our facts known to the court and we are waiting for a judgment on the 9th. But after verification I believe that I will ensure due process in handling the matter.”
On what he actually discussed with Buhari, he said “So many things. You know Benue state is entangled with a lot of challenges in security and of course the economy too. We know that we are not having it easy. Recently the President graciously through the Central Bank granted us a kind of bailout, though its a loan, but at a single digit to be paid over a period of twenty years. We are already paying our workers. We have accessed the N28billion, which we are paying as arrears inherited from my predecessor. We also thanked him for appointing our son, Chief Audu Ogbeh, as a minister of the Federal Republic and also to brief him on the security.”
He continued “So far we have been able to maintain law and order in Benue state. We have been able to contain crisis between herdsmen and farmers through dialogue, understanding, give and take through win win proposition of government.
“The issue of criminality and kidnapping, raping, armed robbery and killings for which we introduced the amnesty programme, about 700 youths came forward to embrace the amnesty and surrendered over 400 different types of weapons and ammunitions. It has been a huge success and tomorrow Thursday and Friday, we are holding a retreat so that we can integrate them back into the society and make them useful to the state. All these were things I needed to brief the President on because he gave me the go ahead when I started the amnesty programme and it has yielded results. Today we have achieved relative peace back home in Benue state. We have been able to bring down criminality to the barest minimum and people can now go about their normal duties in the state.”
On what his government is doing to key into the Presidential vision of food security in the country, Ortom said “You Know Benue state is the food basket of the nation. This is one area that we have comparative advantage and we are preparing ourselves. We are not just looking at rainy season farming, but also dry season farming. This is the direction we are going, we are already working with development partners, government and other interested private sector to draw out a road map towards this end and I believe that Benue state will be a major factor of producing food for the country and the rest of the world.”
