Panel breaks into Ortom’s car shop, seizes automobiles

Hyacinth Alia, the governor of Benue State, established an asset recovery committee. On Tuesday, the group invaded the former governor Samuel Ortom’s auto repair shop with towing vehicles and removed various automobiles.

Alia was revealed that the previous governor reportedly misappropriated 29 government vehicles through the use of his chief press secretary, Kula Tersoo.

In a statement, Tersoo had added, “The case of the Government House is particularly pitiable with vandalized furniture, window blinds, electronics and other household goods.

This is in addition to the removal of all vehicles from the governor’s office, including an ambulance and a press bus.

The governor’s office’s 29 vehicles, according to the most recent tally, are still missing.

The asset recovery committee raided Ortom’s auto shop on Tuesday afternoon, but the workers inside resisted them, a source told our correspondent on Tuesday.

When questioned, Bemgba Iortyom, the PDP’s publicity secretary, acknowledged that state operatives had visited Ortom’s vehicle repair shop.

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“Governor Alia has now sent towing trucks to ex-Governor Ortom’s auto workshop to cart away automobiles after attempts to drive them away failed,” Iortyom stated.

You may remember that Benson Abounu, Ortom’s deputy, and they obtained a court injunction preventing the asset recovery committee from pursuing them.

Ortom and Abounu urged the court to establish “whether property properly awarded to them as entitlements and pay can be classified as state government assets” in their lawsuit, MHC/199/2023, which was filed through their attorney, Douglas Pepe (SAN).

They ask the court to “determine whether or not the executive actions and decisions of the Governor and Government of Benue State taken by Ortom and Abounu and the State Executive Council, in good faith before May 29th, 2023, were valid under the combined effect of sections 5(2), 44, and 318(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”

As part of their request, the former governor and his deputy seek the court to decide “whether or not the Governor of Benue State is not bound by the constitutional approvals given by his predecessor.”

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They claim that Alia’s asset recovery committee is powerless to affect their right to possession of any property that has been “vested in them by the Benue State Government at all relevant times or without following due process.”