The Benue State government has accused the former administration led by Samuel Ortom of being behind the consent judgments, running into at least N3.6bn, entered into.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and Public Order, Fidelis Mnyim, stated this while speaking with journalists in the state on Monday.
He stated that the current administration, led by Governor Alia, has been having issues as its accounts were garnished because of the consent judgment entered into by the immediate past administration. He disclosed that a court in Abuja on Monday had ordered the unfreezing of N1.9bn from garnished orders two weeks ago.
He noted that after finishing one of the inherited garnishee cases in Abuja, the court set aside the judgment, and the Benue State government account was released from that N1.9bn debt. He also noted that the other case was still in court, disclosing that the state legal team had filed its processes and was gagging the issues. He expressed optimism that the case, too, would be set aside by the court.
The state commissioner for justice noted that in the past months since the beginning of the new administration, the state government has been suffering from garnishing of the accounts. According to him, in the past week, the state had several garnishees on the state government accounts.
According to him, in the last two weeks, the state government had suffered from two garnishing issues of N1.9bn at Abuja and the other of N800m from the LG, which emanated from Vandeikya Local Government Area.
The commissioner explained that, according to the Nigerian constitution and the recent Supreme Court ruling on the financial independence of local government, the state government had nothing to do with local government funds and that funds meant for the state government should not be garnished at the local government’s instance.
He disclosed that another garnishee case of N900m regarding one of the local government areas would be heard in Jos, Plateau State.
