Ortom: Why we can’t pay Benue workers

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State on Wednesday said it had become difficult to pay salaries of Benue workers.

Daily Trust reports that workers under the state employ have been complaining of being owed three months’ salaries.

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Ortom while answering questions from journalists in Makurdi, the state capital, on Wednesday, gave three reasons for the development.

He blamed factors such as the rising cost of overheads, the inability of the NNPC to remit money to the federal accural and the state’s low internally generated revenue (IGR) as a result of insecurity.

The governor said it had been difficult to coordinate the IGR due to the increasing insecurity challenge which had landed nearly two million of the state’s population in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.

“Even the federal government has been borrowing to pay salaries but states do not have powers to do so except with permission from the Federal Ministry of Finance’s Debt Management Office (DMO). It’s a big challenge because we are facing the economic realities,” Ortom said.