The Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has called on the immediate past governor, Gabriel Suswam to return all the money he allegedly stole while presiding over the affairs of the state between 2007 and 2015.
The party was reacting to the recent claim by the embattled erstwhile governor that his successor, Samuel Ortom has ruined the state just after one year in office.
A statement issued by Berger Alfred, the Acting Publicity Secretary of the party in the state asked the former governor to return all the money he stole while in office if he loved Benue as he claimed.
The party warned Suswam to stop castigating the name of the current governor to score cheap political gain.
The statement as obtained by DAILY POST on Tuesday reads in full:
“The attention of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, Benue State has been drawn to two careless, malicious and inciting statements made by the former governor of the State Dr. Gabriel Suswam during the last PDP caucus meeting held yesterday at the party’s secretariat in Makurdi wherein he alleged that ‘the APC- led government in the state has plunged the state into its biggest crisis in decades as workers are routinely owed salary while hate and intolerance have been elevated to the statecraft’.
“The second but more dangerous being his allegation that ‘the government of the day is unlawfully arresting PDP youths and keeping them in cell’.
“Ordinarily, our focused party would not have bothered to dignify someone who’s tenure as the the governor of the state witnessed high economic sabotage and hardship elevating thuggery and armed banditry to a glorified practice; we have been constrained to reply him.
“To put the records straight, it was during Suswam’s tenure as the executive governor that strange dictions, such as; “half salary”, ” no salary ” and “zero salary” greeted the civil service community leading to untold hardship. It was rather unfortunate that despite the huge finances that flooded the state while he held sway, Suswam ought to have known that it was during his tenure that Benue workers and pensioners were deliberately owed several months of salaries and pension arrears running into billions of Naira. Accusing the current government of the evil he masterminded is not only laughable but pitiable as well.
“On Suswam’s allegation that the arrest of hoodlums who had made Benue a haven of death is unlawful, we are not in any way surprised, as this is the cry of a warmonger who had trained and harbored these hoodlums to firmly control the state using unlawful means.
“The former governor needs to wake up from slumber and come to terms with the present reality that Governor Samuel Ortom is not willing to surrender Benue to criminals and wherever they are hiding, the long arms of the law will catch up with them.
“It is established facts that Benue workers and pensioners are not paid up to date, but everyone in the state know the spillover effects of the locust years, during which the state treasury was emptied on personal edifices and establishments.
“What Suswam and cohorts ought to have done is to cover themselves into shame and not to go about preaching hate campaign against the party that has defeated his party and is still going to do it again anytime elections are to be conducted in the state.
“The APC government in spite of the empty treasury its inherited is significantly making progress in the face of a barren economy. The Benue populace understands this.
“We wish to reemphasize that the APC government understands the pains of the state and the party that laid the foundation of this precarious situation should not pride about with inciting statements. The most honourable thing expected of Suswam and his party is to bring back the monies he looted if he truly cares about the state as claimed.
“When you understand the truth, it is not difficult to detect a liar. The public should disregard the opposition PDP and their false alarm.”
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