Ortom warns new caretaker chairmen against corruption

BENUE State Governor Samuel Ortom has sworn-in Special Adviser on Security, retired Col. Edwin Jando and 23 local council caretaker chairmen, charging them to rule by example and shun corruption, warning them public service should not be an avenue to amass wealth.

Ortom, who urged members of the public to give their support to the appointees to eliminate corruption in his administration, further warned that the period when council chairmen used to abandon their jurisdiction is gone, except with appropriate permission.

Ortom further said that security tops priority of his administration and urged everybody to brace up to tackle the security challenges confronting the state.

“As we speak today, I have given a dateline of August ending for the submission of arms by their carriers, after which we will go after them. I have placed an offer of N100, 000 for people that surrender automatic rifles, N50, 000 for pistols while locally made pistols and long guns attract N10, 000.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Chairman of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN Benue State Chapter, Rev Tor Uja has called on Christians across the country to sustain their prayers for President Muhammadu Buhari as well as the Benue State Governor Ortom so that the rot that has piled up for many years can be cleared permanently.

Rev Uja, who made the call as part of the speech he delivered during the special emergency state executive and Pentecostal Leaders Summit held in Makurdi, also urged Pentecostal churches in the state to pursue revival with zeal to obtain it by the Holy Ghost.
“Only spiritual revival will rebuild the land and cause it to yield its fruits, produce open doors and restore the core values, sacrifice, integrity, hardworking and productivity.”

Ortom also warned that the chairmen should not consider revenue accruing to local councils as personal wealth to be shared, even as he charged that all revenues must be channel to the appropriate purses for use for the development of the rural areas.
“I will not hesitate to drop any one that fails to live by the tenets of the rule of law and due process which is the cardinal principle of the administration,” he warned.

While intimating that his administration would carry out reforms at local level of government to eliminate the menace of ghost workers very soon.

The governor who said the appointments were done after careful consultation with stakeholders and confirmed by the state assembly and urged those that could not make the list to wait for further opportunities.

The chairmen include: Barr. Paul Ikwe, for Obi, Mr. Paul. Udenyi, Ado, Mr. Joseph Ngbede, is for Agatu, Mrs. Catherine Egba, Apa, Mr. Godwin Iorsue, Buruku, and Mr. Emmanuel Kwaghgba is for Gboko, among others.

The PFN chief added, “We urge Pastors to leave politics to politicians and stop seeking to appear at Government House gates in red, blue and purple robes. The place of the Pastor is at the pulpit not Government House.”

While calling on every church to work out the prayer agenda for President Buhari, Osinbajo and Governor Ortom, he maintained that the change the new administration in the country has brought is from God himself.

The out going Benue PFN Chairman, who decried attempts by some national PFN official from Abuja together with some self-seeking Pentecostal pastors in the state to impose some people as leaders of the state chapter, vowed that the people who have served PFN in the state for several years will not allow such a coup-de- tat to happen in the state.