On Wednesday, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom stated that it was getting harder to pay employee salaries.
According to reports, employees employed by the state have complained that they are owed three months’ pay.
Ortom provided three explanations for the situation in response to questioning from journalists in Makurdi, the state capital.
He attributed the low internally generated income (IGR) of the state to insecurity as well as issues like the rising cost of overhead, the NNPC’s inability to send money to the federal accural, and the rising cost of overhead.
The governor claimed that the growing insecurity problem, which had forced over two million residents of the state into IDP camps, had made it difficult to manage the IGR.
“Even the federal government has been borrowing to pay salaries but states do not have powers to do so except with permission from the Federal Ministry of Finance’s Debt Management Office (DMO). It’s a big challenge because we are facing the economic realities,” Ortom said.
