From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
Former Benue State Governor Chief Samuel Ortom has berated the State Commissioner for Justice and Public and Attorney-General of the State, Barr. Fidelis Mnyim for misleading Governor Hyacinth Alia on issue that led to garnishee of accounts.
Chief Ortom in a press statement by his media aide Sir Terver Akase on Tuesday while reacting to comments by Mnyim wherein he was quoted as saying, “the present government is still suffering from the consent judgments amounting to N3.6 billion entered into by the immediate past administration of Samuel Ortom”.
Ortom said the apparent contradictions in the statements of the Attorney General smack of the schemes of an official who, though appointed to advise and guide the government on legal matters, is on a mission to mislead the same government and set his principal on a perpetual collision course with others for reasons only known to him, stating that If the Attorney General has no idea what his role in government is, the honorable thing to do is to resign instead of engaging in hackneyed anti-Ortom narratives to massage his motives.
The former Governor recalled that in October last year (2023), the same Attorney General, Barrister Mnyim, claimed in a widely published report that the current government inherited a debt profile of over N14 billion as consent judgment from the Ortom administration.
“Barrister Mnyim, as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, is expected to know that a majority of the issues he raised in the said media report pertains to pensions and gratuity cases. There are records to show that the Ortom administration inherited pension and gratuity arrears that spanned several previous administrations, with many court cases filed by pensioners still unresolved when Chief Ortom took office in 2015.”
