Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has urged President Bola Tinubu to emulate the good example of Governor Alex Otti of Abia State by immediately obeying the judgment ordering the Federal Government to recover pensions collected by former governors, and to challenge the legality of states’ pension laws permitting those involved to collect such “outrageous pensions.”
The judgment dated 26 November, 2019, was delivered by Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo following a suit by SERAP.
Otti, last week signed into law the bill to repeal ‘The Abia State Governors and Deputy Governors Pensions Law No 4 of 2001,’ following the passing by the House of Assembly. Under the repealed law, former governors and deputy governors in the state were paid lifetime salaries and got houses in Abia and Abuja.
Also, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, last week asked state governors to emulate Governor Otti in repealing laws supporting the payment of pensions to former governors and deputies in their states, describing life pension laws as ‘rascality’ and ‘acts of daylight robbery.”
In the letter dated March 23, 2024, by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “We urge you to emulate the good example of governor Otti by urgently obeying the judgment, something which former President Muhammadu Buhari blatantly failed to do.”
SERAP said, “Unless the judgment is immediately obeyed, former governors and their deputies including those now serving as ministers in your administration and members of the National Assembly who receive pensions would continue to evade justice for their actions.”
Peoplesmind
