By Sunday Ogli, Makurdi
THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Benue State chapter, has challenged Governor Hyacinth Alia to publish how much he has received from the federation account, internally generated revenue, IGR, stamp duty levies, value added tax, VAT and counterpart grants.
The party in a statement signed by the Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom and made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Thursday, urged the governor to lift the veil off his sole administrator stance and render account of his expenditure since he became governor.
It reminded the governor that it is the right of the people to know how he is expending their commonwealth, warning that such right might be enforced sooner or later by the people.
“The governor should open the books and publish how much he has received from internally generated revenue (IGR) as well as from federal sources including monthly FAAC allocations, stamp duty levies, VAT, counterpart grants and others.
“Governor Alia should lift the veil off his sole administratorship and render account of his expenditure so far as tallies with his claims on how he has been running the state.
“The Benue State governor should not be deluded by vainglory or praise-singers to assume that the world believes all is well in the state just because he has cast a blanket of silence over reportage of continuing insecurity made worse by killings of innocent people by bandits whom he refers to as his ‘brothers in the bush.’
“The governor should beware that it is the right of the people to know how he is expending their commonwealth, and this is a right the people will enforce sooner or later,” Iortyom stated.
The party also challenged Governor Alia to back his claims on radio on Wednesday night about the security situation in the state by taking journalists on a tour to prove that he has restored peace and security such that displaced persons are going back to their farms.
According to Iortyom: “The governor who, obviously fearing a roasting-alive in an interactive engagement with the press, following his pathetically poor take-off in office so far, preferred to sit down to a monologue on radio saying things which pass him off as a victim of extreme self deceit.”
“Following his embarrassing cowering away from an engagement with the mass media to give account of his first 100 days in office, Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, sneaked to the state run Radio Benue under cover of darkness last night to reel off a litany of lies as his performance record in office so far”, he said.
