The Benue State House of Assembly has approved the request for Governor Samuel Ortom to obtain a N12.11 billion loan facility from the bank to finance infrastructure in the state.
Ortom had, earlier in a letter to the House, requested approval to borrow the N12.11 billion, out of which N10billion would be used for infrastructural development and other needs of governance in the state while the remaining N2.11billion will be for UBEC counterpart fund.
Debating on the matter on Wednesday at the floor of the House, the Deputy Speaker, Christopher Adaji, as well as two other lawmakers, Baba Ode and Agnes Uloko, stressed that the amount was part of the borrowing plan contained in the budget.
The lawmakers, who concurred to the borrowing in view of the budget content, added that the money should be use for the purpose it was meant for.
Speaker of the House, Titus Uba, in his ruling in favour of the majority therefore urged his colleagues to step up oversight functions by ensuring that whatever was approved by the assembly was judiciously applied for its purpose.
Our correspondent recalls that Governor Ortom before 100-days in office during his first tenure accessed a N10 billion loan out of which he expended N7.5 billion on payment of two month’s salaries to workers in the state, while N2.5 billion was utilized on purchase of cars and take-off for the executive and legislative arms of government.
Ortom had also sought and gotten approval of the State House of Assembly during the time in 2015 to obtain a loan of over N5.5 billion to enable his government finance some counterpart fund projects in the state.
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