Alia freezes Benue accounts, pledges workers’ welfare

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Alia freezes Benue accounts, pledges workers’ welfare

The new Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, on Monday ordered the placement of ‘Post No Debit’ on all bank accounts of the state, shortly after taking his oath of office.

The governor, who inherited N187bn debt from his predecessor, Samuel Ortom, declared that the state accounts would remain frozen “until all signatories are changed,” warning that “any bank that violates this instruction does so at its own risk.”

Furthermore, in his inaugural speech, Alia announced that his administration would undertake a review of the anti-open grazing law passed during Ortom’s administration.

Alia, who described the law as controversial, said it needed to be reviewed to accommodate current realities.

The governor said, “We are inheriting an anti-open grazing law, whose implementation has become controversial.

“Having gone through some period of implementation, it is fit and proper for us to review the law to identify the lessons learned, hold the gains made, if any, and reform to accommodate current realities.”

The new governor, who said he recognised the plight of workers in the state, promised to prioritise payment of salary and pension allowance.

“We must strike a healthy balance between caring for the generation that toiled for this state; I’m talking here about pension and gratuity for our pensioners, paying our serving employees a living wage and investing in the future of our children through revised curricula that meet the demands of a modern economy.

“A labourer deserves his wage, so says the Holy Book. We will prioritise and address the issue by ensuring that all verified arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuity are paid promptly without further delay.”

The governor regretted that the state for the past eight years had been disconnected from the Federal Government due to bad politics of the immediate past government. He promised to reconnect the state back in order to enjoy the necessary benefits.

“Politically, our state has been disconnected from the Federal Government because of bad politics. We commit to reconnecting Benue State to the proverbial ‘national grid’ of Nigerian politics in order to harvest the benefits derivable therefrom,” he said.