Gov. Hyacinth Alia of Benue has denied receiving N44 billion from the Federal Government, as part of President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to address food shortage in the country.
Recalled that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue, had alleged that Alia received N44 billion special intervention grants from the Federal Government between August 2023 to 2024.
This is contained in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Tersoo Kula in Makurdi on Tuesday.
Kula said some members of the APC and PDP were demanding accountability from the Governor over an imaginary N44bn.
He said the Governor never received such an amount of money from anybody since assumption of office, adding that he was focused and would not be distracted.
Kula said that the governor since assumption of office has been transparent, and accountable to the people of Benue and will not hide such a windfall from his people.
He said that the Senate President, Godswil Akpabio who first made the allegation has since apologised to the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).
“The Senate President, who made the allegation that state governors were given N30 billion each, has since apologised to the NGF.
“But in an attempt to give Alia a bad name so as to hang him, the stakeholders who are fully aware of these facts still went public repeating the same lie.
“Alia has never hidden any funds released to his administration. When the N2 billion, out of the N5 billion palliative support was given to Benue, he was among the first governors to announce the receipt of the money,”he said.
He said that this group of stakeholders had stood in the way of progress of the state for a long time, adding that they prefer party politics to governance.
The spokesman said that past governors who served the interest of stakeholders in Benue, only left the state highly impoverished and starved of basic developments,”he said.