The transition committee accused the outgoing Ortom administration of reneging on his promise.
The transition committee of the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State has accused the outgoing administration of Governor Samuel Ortom of delay in submitting handover reports to it.
Hyacinth Alia, a Roman Catholic priest, won the Benue State governorship election on the ticket of the APC in March.
Mr Alia defeated the People Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Titus Uba, who is also the Speaker of the state House of Assembly.
Following Mr Alia's emergence, the outgoing administration of Mr Ortom inaugurated a transition committee comprising members of the APC and the PDP in the state on 27 April.
The committee is chaired by the Secretary to the State Government, Tony Ijohor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and law professor.
However, the incoming government's transition committee, on Tuesday, said the Ijohor-led team was frustrating a smooth transition from Mr Ortom's administration.
The APC transition team led by Mike Iordye in a statement issued on Tuesday lamented that Mr Ijohor reneged on his promise to get government Ministeries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to brief it with handover reports.
Mr Iordye recalled that the outgoing government constituted the transition committee on 22 March with a mandate to "complete their assignment within three (3) weeks which means the report should have been ready by 15 April, 2023."
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"This lackadaisical attention to a serious matter like this calls for concern, as this information is necessary to enable our smooth takeoff on the 29 May, 2023," Mr Iordye said.
Subsequently, the APC team demanded the release of "comprehensive handover notes covering the period of the outgoing administration (from) 2015 - 2023 for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), including the debt profile and the state of finances of the State."
It further requested for "an inspection tour of all ongoing projects, any ongoing negotiations that are not yet frozen as contract, updated Employee List for State & Local Governments and payroll for the month of November 2022, comprehensive list of IDPs and their respective camps."
Other documents it asked for include: pension payroll for the month of February 2020 for the state pensioners and that of the local governments and any other vital information that may be of use to the incoming administration.
APC's demands unconstitutional
Responding to APC's demands, Terver Akase, special adviser on Media and Publicity to Mr Ortom, said the requests were "unconstitutional."
Mr Akase noted that Mr Ortom remains the governor till 29 May.
"He (Mr Ortom) cannot handover now. That will be unconstitutional.
"If the government submits the handover notes now, what becomes of the remaining weeks to 29 May," Mr Akase wondered.
He alleged that the APC's desire is to truncate Mr Ortom's administration before the handover date.
"Requesting for handover notes now is like saying the outgoing administration should end today. The steps that have been taken by Governor Ortom are the conventions," he said.
