Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, in his reaction to the Supreme Court judgement which affirmed his election victory on Friday, has said it has placed more burden on him.
Alia, who spoke to State House Correspondents after the meeting of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, vowed to live up to the expectations and keep giving the dividends of democracy to the people of Benue.
The governor said, his administration has already started a good number of projects, including 16 roads that have been commissioned.
Asked what Benue should expect from him, the Catholic Priest turned politician said: “I know it is a victory not just for me and as a person but for the great people of Benue state. The victory is sweet and it places more burdens on our output, both the input and output.
“That is the expectation and the expectation being that even the courts re-affirmed the mandate the people gave me and I’m quite happy on that. Again, it simply implies that we have to get out there and do some more, let them feel the impact of what they are inspecting.
“When they give you the mandate. It is an inspection then what you put out there for them, becomes their expectation and I know it’s very tall, very, very tall and we’ve already started a number of projects.
“We commissioned 16 roads. Quite a number done out of the 16 as I’m speaking here now. The remaining work is still on on them. We’re hoping that in the next month or two all the 16 roads shall have been completed.
“The earthmoving machinery is already in place for the underpass and the overpass, and then to go straight into the rural roads development. So these are the projects that we intend to do.
“Work is already ongoing as I’m speaking here on the renovation of the 40 year old State Secretariat which has never been touched before it was quite in a dilapidated state. So we’re going to reinvent it.
“We’re working on reforming our civil service. Work has actually begun and we also have an institute specifically for that. On Wednesday, the state exco gave an approval for the Institute to be established just to train and retrain civil service I feel it’s a milestone that we understand fully while in civil service, there is an expectation of you.
“And I’m happy there is an approval and work has already begun on that. So plus all those that I have mentioned there are many more expectations from the folks.
“We appreciate the support, they continue to give. We’re going to live up to the expectations and then we keep giving them the dividends of democracy.”
