George Okoh In Makurdi
The People Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressive Congress(APC) have traded words over the performance of the Benue State Governor in his first 100 days in office.
While the PDP said it saw the performance of the Hyacinth Alia-led government thus far as a fusion of emptiness and disappointment,
APC said the governor’s performance has been credible.
According to the Benue state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Bemgba Iortyom, in a press release to reporter in Makurdi, it is an incontrovertible fact that Alia has achieved the worst take-off in office of any governor of the state, both military and civilian, since its creation in 1976, with neither direction nor content to be found in anything he has done so far. He said PDP’s assessment of Governor Alia’s performance derives from the template of promises he made during the campaigns and after he assumed office, chiefly amongst which were to return persons displaced from herdsmen genocide (IDPs) back to their ancestral lands as well as to clear arrears of salaries and pensions to workers and retirees, all within his first 100 days in office.
“Not only has the governor failed to make good on any of those promises, he has evidently not even considered them a priority since their pronouncement,” he said.
“If Governor Alia has achieved anything in his first 100 days in office, it is, perhaps a counterintuitive manner of governance which has seen him lock up all government financial accounts, giving as his alibi a fear of “hyenas and hawks” whom he says are waiting to devour the contents of those accounts.”
“Yet himself has been drawing from the same accounts since his possibly a ‘lamb and dove’ who won’t touch the funds even as he administers them without the institutional supervision prescribed by law.”
He said if there must be anything ascribed to governor Hyacinth Alia as performance track record in his first 100 days in office, it will most likely be a disregard for due process and the rule of law which has brought upon his regime an avalanche of court cases from parties injured from his serial infractions of law.
PDP called on the governor to wrap his head around the fact that he has a date with history, no matter how short his time in office might likely be, and put in place a legacy which can only be in the form of governance as positively impacts the lives of the people, and not the ostentation and vendetta which so far trademarks him.
However, in his reaction to PDP statement and its 100 days in office, the APC said as practicing democratic trend in the states, successive administrations have always made it necessary to identify and give accounts of their stewardships in the governance and administration of Benue State.
The Special Advisers to the Benue State governor, Dr Mkor Aondona said the administration of Alia has a lot to account for her first 100 hundred days in office.
He said it will recall that at the instance of his acceptance speech as the duly elected sixth democratically elected Governor of Benue State,Alia highlighted his immediate priorities, among other fundamental objectives, to include the immediate payment of salaries and arrears of civil servants owed by the immediate past administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom. He also identified the return of internally displaced persons back to their ancestral homes in Benue State as part of his cogent priorities.
“It is instructive to reiterate that as a state Governor and a man of his words, actions,honour and integrity, Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Alia proactively demonstrated statesmanship, courage, commitment and proof his resolve to return Benue State on the path of prosperity, hope and dignity to the Benue people.”
“An overview of the first 100 days of Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Alia as Executive Governor of Benue State has recorded the following breakthroughs in the face of all contending odds and challenges, including the huge financial and economic wrecks perpetuated by the immediate past administration led by the PDP”.
He reeled out the governor’s achievement to include the immediate payments of salaries and accumulated arrears of Benue State civil servants owed by the Ortom administration which added include the payment of pensions and gratuities to retirees in Benue state civil service.
“ It is on record that so far, the present administration has paid salaries of workers from month May August, while arrears are being prepared for the commencement of deserving verified pensioners in the state civil service”.
He reviewed that the construction of 16 roads in the Makurdi metropolis of Benue state was awarded and works will commence soon.
“Bearing in mind the aggravated rot of the township roads in the state capital as abandoned by the past PDP government. Governor Hyacinth Alia has awarded contract for the construction of the following roads”
“The roads are Odeh-Ageh – John Feese Street with spur to Kuma Abanyam and Othaniel Taangahar Street, Orkuma Akunda Street, Lush Street,Augustinian Community Road, Nigerian Navy Barracks road,Keghem Malu Street,David Jebe Street,Kornya city guest House – Akpeme ,Tyagher Gbaa street,Victoria Aende street,Ghandi Street, Federal low-coast housing road,eight avenue Iorkyaa Ako Street (Extension),Ikeja – Sokoto Street.”
