Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia has debunked insinuations on social media that he was in conflict with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Sen. George Akume, saying, “Akume is my leader, the leader of our great Party All Progressive Congress (APC) and my respect and loyalty to him is 100 per cent.”
The governor who spoke during an interaction with the media at Government House Makurdi at the weekend said; “I have no crisis with the SGF, he is my leader and the leader of my party in the North Central, and as far as I am concerned, saboteurs will continue to starve.”
According to the governor, the leader of the party in Benue and North Central, Sen. Akume, has been elevated to serve the whole country and instead of celebrating him, enemies of the state are busy making insinuations to cause crisis where it does not exist.
Talking on ghost workers in the state, Governor Alia explained that the discovery of 2,500 ghost workers on government pay roll in the first phase of the screening exercise had saved the state over N1billion.
On the delay in constituting the state’s cabinet, the governor said he had since submitted the names of all the nominees to the House of Assembly for screening and confirmation within the stipulated 60 days.
The governor who commended members of the media for their support before, during and after the elections that produced him as well as the take-off of his administration said, “I will not take your support for granted because l am also part of you and there is no way I will offer quality services without you.”
He lamented a situation whereby corps members who were posted to serve in the state obtained deployment letters to other states because of poor renumeration.
