Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi
Falana, has asked Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to return the entire pension
he received since 2007 from Kwara State government to the state.
The lawyer also called on Saraki
to submit the house the state government bought for him in Abuja.
Saraki said last week that he had
written to the state government to stop his pension.
This was following the allegation
by the Socio-Economic and Accountability Project, SERAP, that the Senate
president and some former governors, who hold political office, were receiving
double pay.
But Falana in a statement,
Sunday, however, commended Saraki for doing the right thing and urged him to
prevail on 20 other senators, who are former governors, to stop receiving
pension from their states.
He said, “The Senate president,
Dr Bukola Saraki, announced last week that he had stopped collecting pension as
a former governor of Kwara State following the protest by the Socio-Economic
and Accountability Project, SERAP.
“According to the Senate
president, the moment his attention was drawn to the allegation of the payment
of double salaries, he wrote to the Kwara State government to stop the payment
of his pension. “In like manner, three serving ministers in the Buhari
administration who are former governors have disclosed that they are not being
paid pensions from any of the state governments.
“Other ministers and legislators who are
former governors and deputy governors should speak out so that Nigerians can
know the public officers who are involved in the illegal collection of pension
from state governments and salaries from the Federal Government at the same
time.
“Apart from writing to the Kwara
state government to stop further payment of the pension due to him under the
former governors pension law of Kwara State, Dr Saraki decided to contribute to
the debate on double payment of salaries by some ex-governors.
“Since Dr Saraki has come to the
conclusion that the collection of the pension is immoral, he is advised to
refund the pension he had collected from the Kwara State government since he
became a senator in June 2007.
“He should also relinquish the
house bought for him in Abuja by Kwara State government since he is said to be
receiving housing allowance as president of the Senate.”
‘’However, while Dr Saraki is
commended for demonstrating leadership by example with respect to the illegal collection
of the ex-governors’ pension he should proceed to use his position as the
president of the Senate to prevail on the 20 other senators who are former
governors and deputy-governors to stop further collecting pension from their
state governments since they are currently receiving jumbo salaries and
allowances from the national assembly.”
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