…accuses Alia of targeting him, other opposition politicians
Former Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, has accused the administration of his successor, Governor Hyacinth Alia, of targeting him and other political opponents.
Ortom also accused his successor of the seizure of 23 vehicles allocated to him before he left office.
The former governor said he rejected the seizure through legal action and secured a court judgment directing the state government to return the vehicles and pay N5 million in damages.
Ortom disclosed this while appearing as a guest on Arise Television.
He said the seizure of his vehicles was part of Alia administration’s “witch-hunt” of political opponents.
“After I left office, vehicles that were given to me legitimately by the government, this government [Alia administration] went and seized them in a manner that was not befitting,” Ortom said.
According to him, the vehicles were allocated to him legitimately by the state government and were taken without prior communication to him after he left office.
“No communication was made to me. I went to court, and we defeated the government,” he said.
He said that the court however ordered the return of the 23 vehicles and awarded him N5 million in damages.
Ortom also accused the Alia administration of shutting out political stakeholders from discussions on the affairs of the state.
He alleged that no stakeholders’ meeting involving political parties had been convened since Alia became governor.
Ortom further accused Governor Alia of instructing traditional rulers not to receive him when he recently visited his kinsmen to discuss his wife’s ambition to contest for a senatorial seat.
The former governor also raised concerns over the financial autonomy of local governments in Benue.
He claimed that local government chairmen in the state had yet to take control of their funds despite the Supreme Court’s ruling affirming financial autonomy for the third tier of government.
Alia, a member of the All Progressives Congress, succeeded Ortom on May 29, 2023, after defeating Titus Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party, who was backed by the former governor.
The strained relationship between Samuel Ortom and Hyacinth Alia dates back to the transition from the PDP administration to the APC government in May 2023.
The disagreement quickly moved beyond the political contest.
Within weeks of assuming office, the Alia administration accused the previous government of leaving behind serious administrative and financial problems and announced measures to recover government assets allegedly taken away before the change of government.
Alia inaugurated assets recovery committees at both state and local government levels, with a mandate covering government vehicles, land, houses, furniture and other property.
Security agencies were also listed as members of the recovery structure.
The vehicle controversy became one of the earliest and most visible flashpoints between the two camps.
Alia’s Chief Press Secretary, Tersoo Kula, alleged in June 2023 that the previous administration had left Government House without vehicles and accused the PDP government of looting government property.
Ortom’s camp rejected the allegation. His former Special Adviser on Media, Terver Akase, said the State Executive Council under Ortom had approved a waiver allowing government officials, including the governor and deputy governor, to retain vehicles allocated to them after leaving office.
He subsequently argued that Ortom had not acted unlawfully by leaving with the vehicles.
The confrontation escalated in July 2023 when the state assets recovery committee recovered dozens of vehicles from an automobile facility associated with the former governor.
Reports at the time put the number at 37 vehicles in one recovery operation, while a subsequent committee announcement said 48 vehicles had been recovered from Ortom and others.
The controversy subsequently entered the courts.
In October 2023, a Benue State High Court in Makurdi struck out a suit filed by Ortom and his former deputy, Benson Abounu, challenging the retrieval of vehicles by the Alia administration.
Reports said the case concerned 32 vehicles.
The two administrations also became locked in a broader dispute over the conduct and legacy of the Ortom government.
Alia defended his early actions as attempts to correct alleged irregularities inherited from his predecessor, rather than a political vendetta.
In a June 2023 Democracy Day address, he cited alleged irregularities in recruitment and appointments under the previous administration, including thousands of recruitments and replacements which he said had not followed due process.
Ortom and his allies, however, increasingly characterised the measures as political persecution.
That argument resurfaced strongly in 2026 after an investigative process established by the Alia administration examined the finances and administration of the state between 2015 and 2023.
A commission subsequently reported alleged financial discrepancies amounting to about N139.8 billion in the period under review.
Ortom rejected the findings, describing the inquiry as politically motivated and arguing that the constitution and proceedings of the investigative panels had been challenged in court.
He described the exercise as a “political witch-hunt”.
The rivalry has not been confined to questions of money and government property.
Insecurity has provided another recurring battleground between the former governor and his successor.
Ortom, who governed Benue during years of intense farmer-herder violence and championed the state’s Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranching Establishment Law, has repeatedly criticised Alia over the handling of insecurity.
Alia, in turn, has defended his administration’s security measures and rejected suggestions that his government had failed to respond adequately to attacks.
The disagreement became particularly pronounced after the deadly Yelewata killings in June 2025.
Ortom criticised the state government over its response and argued that stakeholders should be brought together to address the security crisis.
Alia’s administration countered that it had strengthened security operations and was implementing what it described as a “Benue model”.
By 2025, the dispute had evolved into a recurring political and governance confrontation.
Ortom accused Alia of failing to convene broad stakeholders’ meetings across political lines, while the former governor’s supporters repeatedly urged the administration to seek the input of opposition figures and other stakeholders on security and governance.
