I inherited N90b debt from Suswam – Governor Ortom

Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue on Saturday said that he inherited a debt burden of N90 billion from the immediate past administration in the state.Ortom, who disclosed this at an interactive session with newsmen in Makurdi, said the debt were for salaries arrears, bond, overdrafts, and contracts.
“The state Ministry of Finance reported that the N9.3 billion that the former governor disclosed to the public was the balance of the N18 billion bond he collected.
“The state is owing salaries arrears of N12 billion, contract ready for payment N18 billion, overdrafts N1.6 billion, ongoing contracts N50 billion, totaling N90 billion.
“That was why I took N10 billion bond to pay salaries, take off government from all the three arms and renovate the government house,’’ he said.
He explained that the bond was also to secure accreditation for the Benue State University Medical School, where students were in the school for over 12 years without graduating.
Ortom said that he received N1.7 billion statutory allocation and N500 million from the value added tax account.

NEWS 07:05