Court orders senators to refund pensions collected as ex-govs
A federal high court in Ikoyi has asked the federal government to recover pensions and allowances received by former and serving senators as ex-governors.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) disclosed the ”landmark judgement” in a tweet on Wednesday.
The group sued the federal government in 2017 over its “failure to stop former governors from receiving double pay and life pensions”.
BREAKING: We’ve obtained a landmark judgment from the federal high court ordering @NigeriaGov to recover life pensions collected by Saraki, Akpabio, others & directing the AGF to challenge the legality of states’ pension laws permitting former governors to collect such pensions.
Advertisement— SERAP (@SERAPNigeria) December 4, 2019
It also sued the government for failing to seek the recovery of over “N40bn unduly received by the former governors” who are now serving senators and ministers.
Individuals named by SERAP as beneficiaries of this policy are Bukola Saraki, Godswill Akpabio Rabiu Kwankwaso, Theodore Orji, Abdullahi Adamu, Sam Egwu, Shaaba Lafiagi, Joshua Dariye, Jonah Jang, Ahmed Sani Yarima, Danjuma Goje, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, Adamu Aliero, George Akume, Biodun Olujimi, Enyinaya Harcourt Abaribe, Rotimi Amaechi, Kayode Fayemi, Chris Ngige and Babatunde Fashola.
The court made an order directing Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation to institute appropriate legal actions to challenge the legality of states’ laws permitting former governors, who are now senators and ministers to enjoy governors’ emoluments while drawing normal salaries and allowances in their new political offices.
The court adjourned till February 3, 2020, for a report of compliance with the judgement by the federal government.
Recently, the Zamfara state house of assembly abolished a law that allowed the payment of pension and other allowances to former governors and their deputies.
SERAP says it will not relent until the judgement is fully enforced and all state governors abolish the life pension law in their states.
I wish to congratulate SERAP for this giant effort and the Judge for this land mark judgement. I hope the Attorney General for the Federation would comply with his gown part of the judgement. The States should definitely be shown where they over step their bounds in arbitrarily legislating on pension matters. Facts later reveal that the Zanfara case is a child’s play. The moneys collected by all concerned should definitely be retrieved. What is more pathetic is the the former Zamfara governor paid himself and his cronies from pension funds. What kind of accounting system do they operate for God’s sake? EFCC should investigate this anomaly. May the soul of Chief Gani Fawehimi(SAN) rest in peace. Femi Falana (SAN) such cases shouldn’t be blind spots.
Nice! I hope this is followed through & implemented to the letter! Kudos to SERAP!
I hope this is done asap. The money these guys are making from the Governmnet is just too much for their input to work.