Facts about how teachers salaries in Benue State were left unpaid for many months in Benue State under former Governor Gabriel Suswam have emerged.
Suswam’s government is alleged to have paid the N18.7 billion meant for payment of salaries of teachers into a fixed account while the teachers wallowed in anguish.
The amount was owed between October 2013, and June 2014.
The revelation was made at a sitting of the Justice Elizabeth Kpojime Commission of Inquiry, investigating the immediate past government of the State in Makurdi.
The N18.7billion was allegedly diverted by the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
While being questioned, the Permanent Secretary of the Bureau, Mr. Emmanuel Ikpe, revealed that the money, N1.8 billion every month for primary school teachers, was paid into a fixed deposit account number 1017993231 with First Bank Plc.
The payments, according to the Permanent Secretary, was made between January and May, 2015 and it amounted to the tune of N18.7 billion.
He said officials of the bank hid details of the account from the Director of Finance and Administration of the Bureau who sought explanations concerning it.
Asked who payed N4.6 billion in May and N5 billion in June 2014, Mr. Ikpe said the then Accountant, Mr. Isaiah Ipevnor, and the then Permanent Secretary, who was the accounting officer at the time, should be asked the question.
Ikpe said the N3.4 million the Bureau paid monthly to a contractor, Ameh Technology, was for the supply and maintenance of power generators in the 23 local government areas in the state.
He also said he did not know the actual person behind the ownership of the account as only the former Special Adviser of the Bureau, Mr. Solomon Wombo, and the former Permanent Secretary, Mr. Asen Sambe, who can give details.
