The outgoing governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom has handed over debt of N187 billion to the incoming governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia.
Ortom declared this on Sunday during a brief handover ceremony held at the old banquet hall of Government House, Makurdi.
Ortom said that the Indebtedness of his administration, which stands at N187 billion, comprises salary arrears, loans, contractual obligations and others.
The outgoing governor said that in his hand over note was total sum of N734.9 billion that accrued to the state through out his eight years tenure.
Ortom who gave the break down also said that the expenditure and others gulped N735.6 billion admitting that debt situation of the state was on a high side.
According to him, “This handover note contained not only structure but activities of my eight years administration. It has sectoral briefs of the agencies, ministry and departments.
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“It contains three volumes; volume one is handover of all MDAs, volume two comprises of policy document of my administration, (the Benue development plan) the part b is the comprehensive briefs submitted by ministries and agencies and part three contained highlights of debt profile and pension.
“The revenue and income from all sources; federation account, Value Added Tax, grants, loans and others stand at N734.9 billion as at the end of April while the expenditure
stand at N735.6b as at the end of April.
“The Indebtedness of the state which comprises of salary arrears, pension, contractual obligations and others is N187 billion.
The outgoing governor added, “the debt situation of the state might appear on high side but government had taken significant steps to reduce this through debt swap with federal government.
He however admonished the incoming governor to make use of the opportunities of funds that will soon be available for him such as backlog of stamp duty and N61 billion loan facilities from Central Bank of Nigeria for smooth take off.
In his brief remarks, the incoming governor appreciated Ortom for the handover.
