Benue: 48 vehicles recovered from ‘Ortom’s workshop,’ ex-govt officials

The Benue State Assets Recovery Committee says it has so far recovered 48 government vehicles taken away unlawfully by the immediate past administration of Governor Samuel Ortom and some of his officials.

Our correspondent reports that Governor Hyacinth Alia on assumption of office constituted the committee on June 16, to recover vehicles and landed property that were illegally sold or removed away from government premises by government officials.

Chairman of the Committee, Hinga Biem, in a chat with journalists in Makurdi at the weekend, also disclosed that the committee had sent notices of demand to 36 other office holders of the past administration to return government’s property in their possession.

“So far, we recovered 48 vehicles. We have also send demand notices to 36 office holders. We will be announcing their names in due course,” he said.

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Biem noted that of the vehicles recovered so far, three of them are tractors, noting however that five of the vehicles were willingly returned by the public officials in possession of them.

He also confirmed that the committee had taken possession of 32 vehicles allegedly from “the former governor’s workshop,” adding that only one person had come forward with car papers to claim ownership of his vehicles amongst the ones in the committee’s custody while two others who made telephone calls are yet to show up with documents to ascertain their claims.

The chairman however insisted that the exercise was not a witch hunt as portrayed by those affected, stressing that all utility vehicles in the service were either waived or auctioned by the past administration who took them away.