Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, is alarmed at the siege the people are feeling. He says that 18 out of 23 local government councils are under the control of Fulani terrorist groups. According to him, two million people are currently scattered in IDP camps. He maintains his desire to have a president from the southern region because the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to honour a gentlemanly agreement they had in Asaba, the Delta State capital, that a northern candidate should not succeed President Muhammadu Buhari after completing his eight years in office. Ortom adds that he feels fulfilled that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the presidential election. David Lawani monitored the interview on an Arise Television programme
Well, let’s start as they say, that charity begins at home. So, let’s start with Benue State. The governor-elect of Benue State. Rev. Father Alia, has been quoted in the media as saying that you are leaving the state in an intensive care unit, ICU, particularly the civil service, and that his responsibility is to rescue the state on the ICU where you have left it. He said you have not paid salaries, or pensions. You have not paid gratuities, and are you guilty as charged?
It is an unfortunate statement coming from Honourable Alia. The governor-elect is no longer a reverend father because he was suspended from the priesthood. And so, I feel sad about what he said. Going back to history, since I came in, the civil service has not been on strike. And there must be a reason for them to understand with me why they should not go on strike because my government has been transparent. And I have ensured equality and fairness in all things that we do with the state. Go back to history when I took over in 2015. The total salary arrears, pension and gratuity were over N7 billion. The Federal Government did an intervention, and we paid. There were issues because people allege that there were diversions of funds and so on. The EFCC and ICPC came in, and we were given a clean bill of health, because no single fund was diverted from the N28 billion that was given for the local government and for the state. Now, the remaining balance of about N42 billion, just like other states, were also applying. I did apply, but politics will not permit this money to be given to me as I talk to you. Mr. President approved, the ministry of finance approved, and it went to the Central Bank. And because of politics, people rose off from Benue that that money should not be paid to me because I’m no longer in APC. I had the defected to the Peoples Democratic Party. So, that has been hanging on. Everything was done. Due diligence was done. DMO had approved. The president has approved, the minister of finance had approved, but getting to the central bank, our people from Benue state rose up that look if we pay this money to Ortom’s administration, it means we’ll not have anything to hold on to campaign against him in 2023. This was what happened, as I talked to you all. I have the documents and the central bank was just to release this money, just like they did to any other state. Unfortunately, I found myself here. That money is still pending. I tell you the issue of salaries predated my administration. Right from the days of Aper Aku; he owed over 13 months and so on. Today, we are talking of seven months. And of course, I also inherited whether it was the military or George Akume or Suswam or Adasu. They also owe salaries. The issue of salary has been a major problem in Benue State. And let me also inform you that Benue State is paying the third highest salary in Nigeria, outside Lagos. You can cross-check these facts because we have done our research and the statistics are there. We have been paying because when I came in, I attempted to clear the arrears when I got an N10 billion loan from the bank. But because of various recessions that came by the way of economic hardship. It has not been able to stabilise, but in 2018, I decided that salaries must be paid every month. The other seven months that were outstanding, let it be arrears for the teachers and local government -it was 10 months. So, this is what has been going on. It is politics that has led me not to clear these salary. You had other states that you had similar problems, but because they are in the APC, they were paid. And I must commend President Buhari. I was not biased. He approved, but politics will not allow this money to be remitted. And I think that is what the APC, the incoming government is saying, that they will clear arrears and it is because we have already laid the foundation and they want to use that because now with APC government, they can take advantage clear those things. The second thing is about infrastructural development, we have done so well in all sectors of the economy, we have reached out to ensure that there is flow and we have also secured 20 billion loan from Central Bank infrastructure development facility and yet this money has been frustrated to be paid to us because we are outgoing that we have done everything the DMO. It is with the central bank and up to today. They have refused to release this money. Just I am being witch hunted because I’m not in APC. if I were in APC government long time ago this we are talking about salaries would have been cleared, But that notwithstanding on our own due to the little savings we’ve been able to have, we pay pension. We pay gratuity, as we have the money, the issue of pensioners, we sat with the pensioners and they all agreed that look, the difficulty is there but we must find a way because we must survive. Most of us are living on drugs and we accepting this. So for every month, we pay part of the pension and the other ones are paid the following month. So it’s not that we have not given attention to this. It is a big challenge. I’m concerned too that this has been my own frustration. But I think that we have done well by ensuring transparency in making sure that the pensioners the local government workers. The state workers are part of the sharing committee that we meet every month. They are there. So no shortchanging of any form have taken place since we came in. So I think that the incoming Governor elect should concentrate more on strategizing. on seeing how he can do it. In any case, he has won the election. So if he had won election by whatever means using federal might and security might and all those mights that they did, but he has won an election. I have no quarrel with that. When he comes in, it will be his duty to settle all the challenges that he told the people he was going to solve. And I think he should concentrate himself more in attending to do this instead of poke-nosing and interfering in my government at this time.
In fact, they say that 83 per cent of the state’s revenue comes from FAAC. So, there’s a huge dependence on the Federal Government. What did your administration do in terms of generating revenue? I mean, Benue State is referred to as the food basket of the nation in agriculture. How were you able to explore this in terms of revenue generation for the state, and then side-by-side that as we look at the economy on security? Only yesterday, it was reported that in Umogidi, in the Utukpo local government area council, herdsmen attacked and killed 46 people. What is your comment on this?
I’ll tell you the truth. My administration has tried to ensure that we improve on our IGR because when we discovered that not much was coming to take care of our financial needs in Benue State. We decided to look for creative ways and innovative ways that we improve our IGR that we did. We brought in experts. We brought technocrats. We brought people that we felt will be able to add value and make things work for us in Benue to improve on the IGR to augment whatever comes from the federation. But, unfortunately, you will realise and will see that since we came in, and even before then, the challenge was the issue of security. As I talk to you, 18 out of 23 local governments we have in Benue State, as we speak today, are under siege by these terrorists Fulani herdsmen. It becomes difficult in a situation where you have roughly seven million people, and you will have over two million IDPs. Majority of them, in fact, if not all of them, are peasant farmers that contribute to we being called the food basket of the nation. So, this has been the problem. In a situation where people are carrying their belongings on their head and running here and there, in a situation whereas herdsmen come and feed over their farm whatever they produce; in a situation where people are not stable… And they are running here and there – 18 local governments out of 23 – it becomes very difficult to harness and work towards getting revenue from what is being produced from the farm. People are never stable. And, of course, you know that without security, it is impossible to add value to economic development in any aspect. It becomes very difficult. So, this has been the problem. Thank God, the incoming administration say they are going to allow the harassment, and since the PDP lost in the last election, and I also lost my senatorial bid, the Fulani have now taken over the state. That is what we have seen. The report you heard from the Umogidi is just one of them. In my own village and other parts of the state, as I said, an 18 local governments are under siege and killings have been going on every day. They feed on people’s farms. They do whatever they want, and they say that they have taken over, and my administration is no longer there. They are going to repeal the prohibition of anti-grazing laws. It is their land; they will take over and so on. Mind you, at no time did I send any Fulani man or woman away from Benue State. The challenge has been that democracy is anchored by the rule of law. I am somebody who believes in the rule of law and due process, and this is what I’ve been doing. I’ve enacted more laws than any other administration right from the exception of Benue State in 1976. And the reason is that, as a democratic governor, let us have laws that are guiding and leading us to do the right thing. But here are people who have come out openly and said that they will not respect the laws of our land. Now they have killed people from 2012 more than 5000 people have been killed. it has been a very major problem. So there is instability. They are not allowing things to work. And now they are on a killing spree every day. I have reports of killings and so on.
You have referred to your loss in the attempt to represent Benue West senatorial district in the National Assembly. Again, I would like you to talk about the G5 on a platform of which your good self, the governor of Abia, and the governor of Enugu state, lost your sanatoria bid. I know that you know, Gov. Wike praised you recently when you went to commission a flyover that, okay, the bigger story, is that the three of you lost to return to the retirement home which the Senate has become. I ask you, how market and what is next?
Well, the market for me this time is not good. Well, I’m saying that this time around, mar is not good. And I’m here May 29 when I hand over by the grace of God, I’ll find something else to do. Maybe go back to my farm. I’ll do business as far as I’m concerned. But let me tell you. The truth is that the G5 was able to achieve the desire of our members and the integrity group because the G5 came out as a result of the fallout from the primary election, run at the convention of PDP towards the 2023 elections. And some of us believe that there should be a power shift in Nigeria with a country of over 250 Ethnic groups and in the past, we have been known to rotate the presidency from north to south. And so we felt that it was wrong for the PDP to have given the presidency to the north when we have the incumbent president, President Muhammadu Buhari from the north, and the same north producing another one. We felt that that was not good for the unity of the country. Some of us were concerned about how we can make things work for our country, Nigeria, we don’t have any other country to go and have any other country to go and any investment in any other place other than Nigeria. And in particular, in Benue State. So, we are concerned that leading this country be together. Everyone knows that is in the written constitution gentlemen’s agreement, that when the presidency is in the North for eight years, it should go to the South for 8 years. So this is what we stood for. Truly, I wanted my friend Gov Wike. I supported him during the primaries. He didn’t make it. But we supported him. Not just him, that the South because we felt that the presidency should go to the South and you will recall that when the South governors met in Asaba, and said the presidency should go to the south, irrespective of wherever he’s gone. Once it is in the south, it will be okay. I came out the following day. I was the first governor in the north that came out to say that truly we want the Southern Governor governors said was right, and let Nigeria’s team work together, to ensure that we’ll have the presidency from the south. Thank God for the APC governors who came in their numbers after that and from the North they say look, we want equity, fairness and justice. And then this presidency after Buhari stay a tenure of eight years, let it go to the south. I commend them and I appreciate them. But I was the first person who came out immediately after this request was made by the Southern Governors. So, for me, whether I have lost my senatorial district, and these are of course, even before the lecture was done, I did say that it doesn’t matter whether I lose my senatorial district, but let the right thing be done. The Bible says that you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. We all know that were in prison in this country. As of today, there are issues that have to be resolved and are anchored on the rule of law and ensuring equity, fairness, and justice in every aspect of our lives in our country, Nigeria. This is what is lacking. And we cannot just be a defence, it doesn’t matter. My loosened senatorial election does not really matter to me. And that was why in spite of glaring evidence that if I go to court, I mean we are I may lose but I chose that let me stay back. I file a suit that I had to withdraw. Look, let there be peace. And especially for Benue, we said the kind of trauma that my people have gone through 2 million people IDPs people running here and their attacks here and there, they are being killed and poverty all over the place. Why should I get myself involved in stressing our people, I decided to withdraw the case, irrespective of the evidence that I have, whether the rigging that took place, whether the federal might have been without the military, the security might whether the non-transmission of result electronically, as was said by INEC because you can always shift the goalposts in the middle of the game. But all this put together I said, Look, let me have my peace after all Benue people have been good to me. I’ve served them as local government chairman of the party level, represented them in all areas or the state or the national level their minister, and today Governor and by the grace of God two-term governor. I think for me, I am grateful to God, and the Bible says that all things work together for good to them love God and are called according to purpose and John 3:16 says, A man can receive nothing except is given to him from above and through out my experience in politics have always won election people have taken me to court up to Supreme Court. But I have always won at the end of the day without releasing one kobold to anyone.
Going forward apart from returning to the farm may be a good idea. Why don’t you add pastoral work because you have a good knowledge of the Bible?
Why not? While doing farming, I will do that too. I will do that because I love the Bible. I’m a born-again Christian, not just Christian, but a born-again Christian.
Mr. governor, with regards to your statement around a seamless transition to the new government, led by governor-elect, Hyacinth Alia, and despite the terms of his assessments of your performance as governor of Benue State, how would this look how would you extend that hand of let me use the word fellowship to ensure that you achieved this seamless transition you talked about?
I have already done that, to Honourable Alia, the Excellency governor-elect, I have extended the hand of fellowship and nominated people to join my transition council. The SSG is the chairman of the council. So, they will work together if there are things they want to know who will give it to them. We have nothing to hide, we are prepared to give everything that is needed and ensure a seamless transition to the new administration that will come in. I don’t have any quarrel with any of them. I know that demand who contested with him had issues. It has gone to the tribunal. But that is something different from me and the party have decided that they go to tribunal that is being handled. But as far as I’m concerned, my duty as an incumbent governor and I will be ending my tenure on the 29th of May. My duty is to work out a transition that we hand over to him and that I have committed to it. No issues with that. whatsoever. But I want to admonish him because he is my junior brother, and he should wait until he takes over. if he wants to probe, he can. If you want to find out certain things that have taken place during my eight-year tenure, you can go ahead and do it. And even beyond my eight-year tenure if you wanted to do it, you can do it as governor, but now I’m the governor until May 29, 2023. So, I will continue to execute my work until May 29, 2023. When I will hand it over to him and he will be sworn in and then he will take over and then whatever he asks from the people of Benue state are very safe they will go ahead and do it. And I want to advise him to concentrate on thinking of what he can do better than what I did. So that he will be appreciated because he was voted in by the good people irrespective of everything that happened intimidation from the security men, blackmail from his party people, and also the rigging that took place irrespective now it doesn’t matter that he has been given a certificate. And as far as I’m concerned, my duty is to hand it over to him and I’m willing to do that in a peaceful manner. I have chosen not to even engage in any form of violence that will further aggravate the problems of our people. That was why there have been people who may think that was taken unaware but all the things that the security men that were brought from Abuja did. They humiliated our voters and turned them and intimidated them from not voting and all those things, do not matter. My duty now is to prepare a handover which I’m already doing on my own and I’ve set up a transmission committee. Every MDA is preparing handover notes, I will hand them over to him. And if there are any issues that will arise from there thereafter, we’re ready to respond to them.
