TUSSLE IN BENUE AS FORMER GOVERNOR IS ACCUSED OF MISAPPROPRIATION

The Benue State government has been in the news in the last five months over accusation and counter-accusation of fraud leveled against the immediate past governor of the state, Gabriel Suswam by the incumbent, Dr Samuel Ortom. In similar proportion, supporters of the former governor have also turned to accusing the Ortom regime of sleaze. But some political analysts have attributed the bitter war between the two former friends to some serious political interests.

Ortom, since taking over the mantle of leadership from Suswam had embarked on what supporters of Suswam termed a vindictive prosecution of his predecessor. The governor at any forum is quick to accuse Suswam of running the state to the ground. Figures are also being brandished by the state governor and his party, the All Progress Congress (APC) as what Suswam had misappropriated in his time as governor.

The governor, for example, had at different times, given figures such as N90billion, N130billion, N150billion and so on to depict the level of fraud allegedly committed by the Suswam government. The governor had also setup two judicial panels to investigate Suswam’s tenure and determine how funds available to the state were utilised.

Recently, while on a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari, he reportedly claimed that the people of his state wanted thorough investigation of what transpired under Suswam. Ortom, according to reports, said it was the desire of the people to know how the commonwealth of the state was spent, especially as the current administration in the state met an empty treasury.

“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.s
“I met a deficit treasury and the people of Benue State want to know what happened with 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 answer, which the people of Benue State told me to verify and I 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.”
The injunction has since been thrown out by the state high court with a caveat that the commission of enquires can only undertake a fact finding mission and cannot prosecute anyone after its findings.

To push through his intent to recover alleged loots and prosecute Suswam, suspected proxies of the state recently dragged Suswam before the Economic and financial crime Commission (EFCC), accused him and the former state Commissioner of Finance, Omadachi Oklobia of defrauding the state to the tune of N3.1billion proceeds from the sale of shares of the Benue Cement Company (BCC).

But in all of this, Suswam had pleaded not guilty to the barrage of accusations leveled against him. The former governor, who spoke recently at the Holy Ghost Parish, Makurdi during a thanksgiving mass organised in his honour by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus at the Benue state House of Assembly, said if he was called a thief today because he was former governor, another person too may one day be a governor and be called a thief. He said issues of governance are so diverse, cumbersome and interwoven that once one gets into power as a governor, he is confronted with many issues, constitutional and unconstitutional that must be attended to.

“I am not a thief but I am equally not a saint. When I came in as governor, I did not meet a smooth ground yet, against all pressure, I declined to demonise my predecessor, Senator George Akume. Some of those, who are pressurising the incumbent governor to demonise me, were the same who mounted pressure on me to take on Akume. Yet, I declined. All I knew was that I would one day become a former governor. So, if today I am called a thief because I am a former governor, one day, someone else would be former governor too,” he said, sending a subliminal message to Ortom. Suswam, who said he came in and did his best admonished the people to desist from condemning their leaders, arguing that it is as a result of such that Nigerians would sit and find no Tiv man worthy to be in the decision making body.

“Imagine the Tiv nation as the fourth largest single ethnic group in the country by the last agreed population census – the Tiv people were the fourth largest ethnicity. But today, we are not even considered in the decision making body of our country. But you can’t fault the people who took such decisions. We have condemned all our people. So, who would want to work with a condemned person?” he asked. In addition, he added that Governor Ortom is using his power of state to rubbish his achievements in office. “In my tenure I took a bond of N17billion, which we used to facilitate several projects including rural electrification, roads, schools, and water plant constructions. We repaid some of the bonds and we left N9.3 billion unpaid.”
Suswam also said that due to the bad economy as a result of the fall in crude oil price, the state ran into problem with payment of workers’ salaries which he said was not peculiar to Benue State. “Twenty-eight states were in the same position but the APC were not asking why but rather they used it to push us out. But today, despite the state collecting over N50billion loans, the problem could not still be solved.”
Commenting on the relationship between the two, former Police Commissioner in Lagos State, Alhaji Abubarkar Tsav, condemned the prosecution of Suswam by the Ortom government, stating that what the government has embarked is a witch-hunt.
“What is happening in Benue State is a direct opposite of the APC change mantra – a lot of lies telling, deceit and gluttony. The government of Benue State lacks direction and sense of duty. It seems
Benue State has not yet got a government of the people but government of a few,” he said.
Also rising in defence of Suswam, the Assembly of Benue Youths for Justice and Good Governance (ABYFJGG), in a letter made available to raised what they termed pertinent issues.
One of the issues it said was that “On the 11th August, 2015, Governor Ortom inaugurated two probe panels – Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Government Financial Transactions from 2007-2015 and Judicial Commission for Verification of Government Assets headed by Justice Margaret Kpojime and Moses Atagher respectively.
“Both Judicial Commissions have since started work in Makurdi. Since the committees started sitting, it has become very clear to all discerning minds that these committees are put in place to pursue a political agenda – the persecution of former Governor Suswam and those who served in his administration.
“We have come to this conclusion because the conduct of Governor Samuel Ortom, and some senior officers of his administration like Targema Takema, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Chief Tahav Agerzua, the Special Adviser on Media and ICT. At several fora, the governor and his officials have spoken their intention to send Dr. Suswam to jail.
“They have already pronounced the former governor guilty even though the two judicial commissions are yet to complete their work. In pursuit of this political persecution agenda against former governor Suswam, the Ortom administration deliberately appointed partisan politicians and members of the All Progressives Congress to condemn Suswam,” the group said.
But whether or not this is a set-up as being claimed by the Suswam camp, the fact of the matter is that Ortom and his group will be unable to change the truth if evidenced by facts and that appears the only way out for the former governor as his predicament may not be overcome easily, where the state is determined as being insinuated.