The Chairman of the Benue State Assets Recovery Committee, Hon. Hinga Biem, disclosed that the committee has successfully recovered 48 vehicles from the immediate past administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom.
The committee was inaugurated on June 16, 2023, by the current Governor Hyacinth Alia-led government with the mandate to retrieve vehicles and landed properties that were unlawfully sold or removed from government premises.
Biem revealed to The Nation that five persons have willingly returned their vehicles just as a demand notice have been served to 36 public officers.
He said they have decided to go after some vehicles because the last administration illegally disposed of them without due process.
“Let’s take for instance the governor of Benue state has a number of vehicles on his convoy, while it is right to go with his official and back up vehicles it is questionable why he will take escort, press crew, ,ambulance and security vehicles, which ordinarily belong to the pool,” he said.
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According to a member of the Assets Recovery Committee, a bullet proof BMW vehicle on the governor’s official fleet stationed at Benue Liaison office Abuja, worth N3billion was sold off for a paltry N3million, including all back up cars, as reported by The Nation.
GOOD EVENING NIGERIA recalls that the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, criticised the current state government for invading his automobile workshop, saying it’s a plot to torment and persecute him.
This was in reaction to the Benue state assets recovery committee, that raided Ortom ‘automobile workshop,’ where about 30 vehicles were towed away.
However, former Governor Ortom said the 30 vehicles are retirement benefits that were duly allocated to him.
