Benue Assembly probes Otukpo LG chair over financial scandal

The Benue State House of Assembly has commenced an investigation into the allegations levelled against the chairman of Otukpo Local Government Area, Maxwell Ogiri.

Councillors from the council had earlier forwarded a petition to Governor Hyacinth Alia and the state House of Assembly, accusing the chairman of misappropriation of funds, and gross misconduct, among others.

In a reaction to the petition made available to journalists in Makurdi, on Friday, Ogiri said he acted on the advice of the council’s auditor general to operate the revenue accounts with online banks.

The Majority Leader of the House, Saater Tiseer, who confirmed the receipt of the petition on Sunday, said the house had sent a committee on local government to the council to investigate the matter.

Yes, we have sent the committee on local government to the place (Otukpo LG) to look into the issues raised,” the majority leader said.

Copies of the petition, dated June 17, 2025, titled, “Petition Against the Executive Chairman Otukpo LG, Prince Maxwell Ogiri Over Gross Financial Misconduct,” were sent to the commissioner for finance as well as Gubernatorial Liaison Officer, Otukpo, state chairman of the All Progressives Congress and the media.

The petition was signed by 11 legislators, Amodu Philip Anya (leader), Gloria Adu Harrison, Anthony Godwin, Idega Friday, Agbo Alapa, Otalu Musa Felix, Edit Johnson Onka, Ameh Sunday, Augustine Elaigwu and Aaron Oono.

It listed a litany of weighty misconducts against the chairman and demanded a thorough investigation by the various authorities.

Among other allegations against the council chairman were, blackmailing the governor and using his name to swindle N13m from 13 councillors by asking them to pay N1m each for their electoral appeal court in Abuja, operating an illegal online bank account through an alternative bank, illegal printing of revenue receipts, paying internally generated revenue into his personal accounts using Point on Sale belonging to his personal assistant and spending government funds without budgetary approval.

Others are his failure to honour invitations by the legislators to clarify issues bothering on governance, diversion of motorcycles donated by the governor to ease local security patrol, importing thugs to the council secretariat to disrupt legislative sittings, high hardness and total disrespect for constituted authorities.

“Since our inauguration on October 24, the chairman has consistently ignored financial rules and regulations by spending public funds accruable to the legislative council which contravenes Section 87, subsection 3 of Benue State Local Government Law 2007,” they said.

The lawmakers appealed to the state House of Assembly to suspend the chairman and his deputy from office to pave the way for an in-depth investigation and apportion of appropriation sanctions to serve as a deterrent to others.

Speaking to journalists on the petition, the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning, Michael Oglegba, confirmed receipt.

He described the allegations as very weighty, adding that he had decided to carry out an independent assessment to ascertain the veracity of the documents.

There is a process to follow to treat this kind of petition. As commissioner of finance, I will advise the various authorities, including the state House of Assembly, to act swiftly.

“The chairman has not called to tell me what is happening. Coincidentally, I’m also from Otukpo LG. So, I only heard about this crisis from a third party, that there is a total breakdown of law and order in the local government area over finances.

“The chairman has to come to speak and defend himself. These documents are already in public view and Fr Alia has zero tolerance for anything negative to his administration.

“I have sent this document to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to act on it. The allegations are weighty and weighty enough for them to take a second look and give advice that could be appropriate,” he said.

When contacted, Ogiri claimed to be acting on the advice of the council auditor general.

He said, “I cannot open a new account for the local government. I have no reason not to use any bank — Zenith Bank is aware of that. But when I discovered that the revenue generated by any local government is one of the indices used to determine subvention from the federation account, I became determined to step it up.

“In the process, I sought the advice of the Auditor-General for Local Government, who accepted the idea and advised that any contractor I was going to use must be registered in Benue and must be a tax-paying consultant.

He advised that I either hand the process over entirely to the consultants or allow them to partner with the revenue department of the local government, which already has the workforce with the primary responsibility of collecting revenue.

“So, I allowed different consultants to submit proposals. Thereafter, I convened a town hall meeting where all traditional rulers, market women, heads of security agencies, and members of the revenue department in Otukpo Local Government were invited — and the advice was adopted.

“The first consultant selected could not cover all the revenue points, so a new one was brought in — the Alternative Bank — which suggested opening a wallet. Although not a traditional bank, it could serve as a pipeline through which money passes into the main revenue account of the local government.

“This was not intentionally done to siphon money. So, when the system did not function properly for more than two to three weeks, I received further expert advice that Moniepoint could be synchronised for direct payments into the main revenue account.”