Benue govt yet to access N40bn bond – Commissioner

From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

New Benue State Commissioner for Information, Comrade Joseph Shimaor has refuted allegations made in certain quarters that the State Government had accessed a N40 billion bond and it was misapplying it.
Shimaor who made the rebuttal yesterday while speaking with newsmen, explained that the state government is yet to access the N40 billion bond it applied for contrary to the claim by some mischievous people.
‘’There are processes involved in accessing bonds not that one can just rise up and grab it. All the processes and conditions must be fulfilled before the bond will be accessed.
‘’We have not even done 50 per cent of the processes. In fact, we have not even gotten close to it.
‘’Bonds are not liquid cash that can be accessed with ease as erroneously claimed by mischief makers,’’ he said.
He said that the bond, if finally accessed, would be used for infrastructural development and part of it would be used to offset personnel cost that is backlog of salaries.
‘’Nobody pricked the governor to apply for the bond and to state that the bond will be used for the development of the state,’’ he said.
The State spokesman also, debunked the claim that the governor was giving N10 million to all aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the state that lost primaries.
He said that nothing of sort was happening, noting that it is a figment of the imagination of mischief makers.