The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Samuel Ortom of mismanaging local governments in Benue.

“Ortom is mismanaging local government councils and has adopted measures aimed at totally annihilating the local government system,’’ APC’s publicity secretary in Benue, Dan-Morgan Ihomun, told a news conference in Makurdi.

He said Mr Ortom failed to conduct elections into the councils as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution, alleging that some people were parading themselves as council chairmen.

“These chairmen have been working and spending money on a daily basis for several months without the requisite legislative arm in the local governments,’’ he said.

Reacting to the allegations, the publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue, Bemgba Iortyom, countered that Mr Ortom was not the one running the local governments.

He explained that Mr Ortom only exercised oversight functions over local governments through clear-cut constitutional provisions.

The provisions, he said, did not include constituting councils and inaugurating them.

“Local government council chairmen are vested with that responsibility. In the course of exercising this responsibility, they have inaugurated the vice-chairmen. This is a fact against the lie by APC that they have not been inaugurated,’’ he said.

Mr Iortyom stressed that the governor had been conducting council elections since he became governor in 2015. 

(NAN)