Like Alia, Ortom “wars” against bad administration…

To say there is no love lost between the new All Progressives Congress (APC) government in Benue State and the former administration of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a no-brainer.

Just three weeks after taking office, the state's new APC government reversed nearly every last minute policy made by Samuel Ortom's PDP administration.

The popular local phrase of "government is a continuum" may no longer make sense, particularly if such policies are seen to have been made maliciously. This aptly describes the situation in the nation's food basket, where most of the policies made by Ortom, especially in the twilight of his administration, are being reversed by the current administration of Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.

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Shortly after the March 18 gubernatorial election and with the looming change of slack, the Ortom embarked on some policies against which the then opposition APC sounded the alarm in saying that the outgoing government was only trying to set traps so that the incoming government would not do so. have a smooth take off.

But the then outgoing PDP administration had insisted that his party had the constitutional mandate to govern until May 29, and would therefore continue to develop policies until he leaves the government.

Some of the last minute actions of the previous government include massive recruitment of workers, promotion of staff, deployment of staff, launching of executive bills passed and approved by the Ortom, among others. One such law places ex-governors and their deputies on huge gratuities, pensions and other perks, among other things.

But no sooner had the new governor taken office than he reversed all recruitment, promotion, personnel transfer and other policies of the immediate government. The Catholic priest-turned-politician also set up a committee to recover all government property that the Ortom-led administration had taken away, including vehicles attached to the government house. At last count, no less than 15 vehicles ranging from sport utility vehicles, ambulances, trucks, coaster buses, press team buses, pilot vehicles as well as office furniture and televisions are believed to have been swept away.

Although Ortom's former media aide, Terver Akase, has said that the governor and his deputy have the right to drive off in their official vehicles, in order to stop the recovery process, the former governor and his deputy deputy, Benson Abounu, had applied to the court to retain the asset recovery committee. At the time of filing this report, the case had not yet been referred to a judge.

Governor Alia, on his Democracy Day broadcast, while giving reasons to reverse the policies of his predecessor, said this was not a witch hunt but to correct the wrongs committed by the last administration. He disclosed that nearly 15,200 workers had been recruited by the former administration as a hire and replacement and argued that the whole exercise had not followed due process.

He said further on his show "As we celebrate Democracy Day in Benue State, we owe you all the explanations on the few key decisions we have made so far. On the issue of recruitments/appointments, we found that it was riddled with irregularities.

“In concrete terms, the civil service secretariat through the outgoing administration recruited 2,194 people. The State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) employed 3,028 against the approved number of only 2,500, while replacements made were over 5,000.

"Teaching Service Board (TSB) employed 2,500 people, i.e....for the full year, due process did not pass.

"Furthermore, employment was skewed in favor of a few local government areas and disregarded the principle of statehood; furthermore, no budgetary provision was made to deal with recruitments, likewise that there has been no advertising in any medium as required by the provisions of the regulations governing the service in the matter; and no interviews have been conducted to determine the suitability or otherwise of the candidates.

"Most importantly, the state Solicitor General was not involved at any stage of the recruiting process."

The governor added that the appointment of people as permanent secretaries from January 2023 to May 2023 was politically motivated because due process was not followed. He further suggested that the eventual postings of the appointed permanent secretaries were mainly intended to conceal the appointments, adding that the principle of state character was not respected.

Mixed feelings continued to follow Ortom's last-minute policy reversal, while...