- The judicial panel of inquiry set-up by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, to investigate the immediate past government under Gabriel Suswam-led administration has found out some revealing details.
- The panel was informed how over N6.5 billion Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, (SURE-P) fund which accrued to the state was unaccounted for.
- Permanent Secretary, Administration, Office of the Head of Service (HOS), Mr. Joseph Oko, made this disclosure yesterday in Makurdi at the Justice Margaret Kpojime-headed panel sitting.
- Oko told the panel that his office was not consulted on the spending of the Sure-P fund though his office was supposed to be in charge of its running. He claimed that the committee set up by the government received only N25 million as remittance for the training of participants on the Sure-P programme.
He said, “Though the Head of Service served as Chairman of the secretariat of the SURE-P committee, he never had access to the details of the funds allocated to the state since the inception of the programme.
The information available to us through the Ministry of Finance indicated that the state received N7.7 billion from the Federation Account between May 2012 and December 2014.
We also understood that the committee spent N1.2 billion while the remaining balance of N6.5 billion is supposed to be accounted for by the office of the Accountant-General and the Ministry of Finance since they are the recipient of the funds.”