Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has challenged the Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole to prove his claims of mismanagement of Benue bail out and Paris Club refunds.
Ortom accused Oshiomhole of making โastonishing, unsubstantiated, wild and wide allegations relating to the issue of allocation and payment of salaries, security votes expenditure and the insecurity in Benue State.
The governor, who spoke in an August 6 letter written by his counsel, Samuel Irabor, alleged that the ex-Edo Governor Oshiomhole made libellous statements against him at a press conference on July 27.
He demanded that Oshiomhole should write a โletter of retraction/apology addressed to our client in respect of the false, defamatory and libelous statement made against him in the sponsored press conference herein complained of.
โThat the said retraction/apology be simultaneously published in the Sunday edition of 10 National Dailies circulating within Benue State as well as a paid advertorial to the same effect on the prime time beats of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Channels TV, TVC News, African Independent Television (AIT), Independent Television (ITV) Benin, Radio Nigeria, Radio Benue and Harvest FM, Makurdi.
โAn undertaking not to indulge in any such false publication against our client in future, payment of N10Billion as punitive, general, exemplary and aggravated damages.โ
He warned that should the APC Chairman fail to meet the terms within seven days he should be prepared to defend a libel suit.
According to the Benue governor, Oshiomholeโs statements were an attempt to โregain political mileageโ following Ortomโs recent exit from the APC to the Peopleโs Democratic Party (PDP).
He claimed that since he exercised his โpolitical freedomโ by moving to a party that guaranteed safety for his kinsmen, Oshiomhole had embarked on a campaign of hatred and propaganda against him.
Ortom described as false and offensive, โyour allegations that our client has confessed to sharing Benue State money with party leaders and that despite collection of bail out and Paris Club refund monies.โ
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He also took offense to a statement credited to Oshiomhole that โGovernor Ortom has not and is not paying salariesโฆ the vicious circle of poverty in Benue State has been deepened under Gov. Ortomโ.
Ortom added: โBy deducible analysis, it is also your allegation that our client is responsible for the killings in Benue State, specifically the unfortunate killing of two Catholic priests and their parishioners in Mbalom community which sad event occurred on the morning of 24th April, 2018.
โIt is noteworthy that in the entire web of false accusations that you weaved against our client, you could not bring yourself to mention a single Benue person or any other person for that matter from whom you sourced your false narratives. For the records, the principles of law grounding liability for defamation and libel do not exculpate tale bearers from liability for the reason that the tales they bear are not original to them.
โIt is the complaint of our client that the false and offensive publication has deeply injured his reputation by portraying him in literal, unequivocal and unambiguous terms as a dishonest, fraudulent and violent person who has not only diverted the various intervention funds meant for salaries and arrears by sharing same with party leaders but is also an accomplice to the killings in Benue State.
โIt was in this parlous state that the Samuel Ortom led administration applied for the said N69 billion as bailout funds but it received N28 billions of which N12.5 billion was meant for the state and the balance of it was meant for the Local Government Areas. After carrying out staff verification, the State paid four months arrears for January 2015 โ April 2015 and was able to save N1.6 Billion as a positive consequence of the verification exercise. Unfortunately the N1.6 billion saved from the verification exercise was garnished by the workers of Taraku Mills Ltd who had earlier secured judgment at the National Industrial Court before our client became Governor.
โOn the issue of Paris Club refund, the expenditure profile by the Benue State Government is also in the public domain as our client, in the spirit of transparency, probity, honesty and accountability, has variously engaged the Benue people through several interactive sessions entailing phone-in programmes vide the state media. The records show that the first tranche of Paris Club refund amounting to N12.7 billion was received in December, 2016 and used in facilitating two months salaries across board. The second tranche came in June 2017 amounting to N6.4 billion and was also used to offset salary, pension and gratuities while the Benue State Government in agreement with the Labour Congress in Benue State took an overdraft of N8 billion in anticipation of the third tranche which was also utilized to settle indebtedness to workers.โ
According to Ortom, the only inference to draw is that Oshiomholeโs โunproven allegation was informed by a dangerously cultivated, albeit unwarranted maliceโ against him.
