Benue APC urges Ortom to stop endless foreign travels, concentrate on governance

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Benue State Chapter, has advised Governor Samuel Ortom to put a stop to what it described as “endless foreign travels” and concentrate on the task of good governance.

The party said that the call became necessary considering that a substantial number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and bilateral agreements, which had been signed by foreign investors with Ortom’s administration since its inception in 2015 till date failed to yield the intended positive results.

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Terver Akase, had last Friday notified through a statement that his boss (Ortom) would be travelling abroad today, February 10, 2020, to participate in the United States (U.S.)-Benue Trade Forum.

Akase said the event, which has the theme “Think Global, Grow Local,” was aimed at promoting economic co-operation between institutions and organisations in the U.S. and Benue State.He noted that the forum would provide opportunities in agro-based businesses, infrastructure development and healthcare.

According to him, the governor would also take part in an event organised by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington DC.Akase further said that before making his return, the governor would attend the Paris yearly international agricultural show in France.

The APC, in a statement signed by the Acting Publicity Secretary, James Ornguga, said that the whole money spent on foreign trips in the guise of seeking foreign investors was enough to revive the state’s agricultural sector.

“In April 2017, Benue’s thick delegation to China headed by the then leader of the state economic team, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar, travelled all the way from Guangzhou to Qinqdao where they, on behalf of the governor, signed a pact with the Qinqdao Bureau of Commerce covering several areas of economic co-operation such as electricity and road construction in the 23 local councils of the state without fruition.
“Just last year, the governor was in Japan to attend the global economic summit whose impact we have yet to see and feel in the state.“

Since the current trip is tagged a trade forum, we were expecting that the governor would assemble a team of trade experts and those knowledgeable in agriculture in his government to make the trip with him rather than exercising a “jack of all trades” attribute,” the statement read in part.
Culled from guardian.ng