*As PDP Describes It As ‘Empty, Disappointing’
By Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
Benue State Governor Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia shunned the media yesterday as he failed to show up to account for his 100 days in office.
Note that the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP had on Tuesday issued a press statement signed by its Publicity Secretary Bemgba Iortyom, describing the Governor’s 100 days in office as a ‘big disappointment’.
The Governor in swift response, had hurriedly organized a press conference to highlight his achievements in 100 days to the media.
The event scheduled for 9 am on Wednesday had a large number of media executives, reporters, online bloggers in attendance including members of the new cabinet who waited for over 3 hours for its commencement.
Everyone was however,stunned when the Deputy Governor Barr. Sam Ode stood up and announced that the briefing had been called off, explaining that his boss was engaged in a zoom conference with other All Progressives Congress, APC Governors on security issues.
Reacting to this development, PDP observed that the Govermor’s failure to account for his 100 days in office only reinforces the open secret that his stewardship so far is a colossal failure bereft of any achievement to showcase publicly.
“The governor clocked 100 days in office yesterday, 5th September, 2023, but with a take-off in office adjudged as the worst ever seen of a governor of the state since its creation, his first 100 days have been characterized by what may best be described as emptiness and disappointment.
“PDP recalls that Governor Alia himself, under no prompting had laid the template by which he should be assessed at the 100 days mark when he promised to return to their homes persons displaced by killer Fulani herdsmen and also clear backlog of salaries and pensions arrears to workers and retirees.
“But 24 hours after the 100 days mark, the governor has shied away from coming public to render account of his stewardship, as IDPs are still in camps and workers suffering a worse fate under a voodoo system of arbitrary deductions from their pay cheques, demotions and unlawful termination of their employment contracts.
“A governor who has all along run a sole administratorship without a cabinet and all state financial accounts frozen and stored inside his briefcase, with he alone making withdrawals and expenditure from, certainly isn’t in any shape to face public accountability scrutiny.
“And so Governor Hyacinth Alia pins to his chest yet another badge of dishonour and infamy as the first governor to run away from an accountability briefing at his first 100 days in office”, Bemgba fumed.
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