Benue State has been run aground, civil service in “intensive care unit”, Governor-elect, Alia

Benue State has been run aground with the current administration owing backlog of salaries, pensions and gratuities, Governor-elect, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has said.

Alia, who noted that he will be inheriting a badly managed state come May 29, 2023, however, hoped to remain focus and tackle the myriad of issues on his desk.

According to him, the state’s civil service is in a state of near collapse and in “Intensive Care Unit” (ICU).

“I have come to infuse life into it and keep it moving,” he told State House correspondents after visiting President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

On whether he would institute a probe into Gov. Samuel Ortom’s administration, the governor-elect said: “I haven’t looked at the books, so I wouldn’t want to be quite preemptive. Once I’m sworn in, I know that what the good people of Benue want is progress and development.

“There is so much that we need to put on track for things to work. Benue state is an agrarian zone and so we must focus on agriculture and upgrade it.

“Benue is very capable of feeding the whole nation; so we are not just the food basket of the nation by name and I am hoping that we will up our game in agriculture and take care of the rest as well.

“It is sad that the civil service in the state is near collapse, it is in the ICU. I just need to get in there and infuse life in it and keep it moving.

“We have a lot of backlog of unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities. Already I got much on the desk to keep a good focus on and I remain hopeful that I am going to do just that.”

Persecondnews recalls that Alia had written a letter to the Benue Investment Property Company, warning the officials against colluding with the incumbent governor on some financial transactions.