PDP, Alia bicker over 100 days performance in office

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State and Governor Hyacinth Alia Thursday traded words over the 100 days performance of the latter in office.

Alia, had on Wednesday night addressed the people of the state through a radio broadcast during which he reeled out some of his achievements within the period.

But the PDP State Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, in a response yesterday faulted the governor’s outing, alleging that if his submissions were truly to be upheld, he ought not to have shunned an earlier scheduled press briefing on his 100 days in office.

“Following his embarrassing cowering away from an engagement with the mass media to give account of his first 100 days in office, Benue State governor, Hyacinth Alia, sneaked to the state owned Radio Benue under cover of darkness last night to reel off a litany of lies as his performance record in office so far.

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“The governor who, obviously fearing a roasting-alive in an interactive engagement with the press, following his pathetically poor take-off in office so far, preferred to sit down to a monologue on radio saying things which pass him off as a victim of extreme self-deceit.”

But the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Joseph Alakali, said the achievements of the governor within 100 days in office have surpassed expectations in view of the alleged rot in the system and current economic challenges.

Alakali, who spoke during a meeting with the Zone A Progressive Frontiers who paid him a solidarity visit, noted that the first 100 days were a litmus test to the monumental and aggressive development that will hit the state in the coming years.

He said the governor has within three months rid the state workforce of payroll manipulation and successfully paid four months’ salary and is poised to clear all arrears.

The SSG in a statement by his Principal Special Assistant on Cabinet Affairs/ Media, Philip Salemkaan, listed among others the achievements of the Alia administration so far to include; renovation of Benue State House of Assembly Complex, ongoing renovation of the abandoned State Civil Service Secretariat, ongoing construction of 16 roads within Makurdi metropolis and the whole gamut of palliative measures of the governor aimed at alleviating the hardship of the people occasioned by subsidy removal among others.