The National Industrial Court has
declared as null and void, payment of pension and gratuity to former governors
and deputy governors, not in consonance with what is fixed by the Revenue
Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
The court gave the judgment on
Thursday while ruling in a suit brought against the Taraba State government by
Alhaji Garba Umar, a former acting governor of the state.
It was the second time in less
than a month that a court will dismiss as illegal the pensions former governors
are drawing from their states.
In early December 2019 in Lagos,
a Federal High Court also declared the pension illegal.
Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo
ruling on an application for an order of mandamus in a suit brought by the
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), ordered the federal
government to recover pensions collected by former governors now serving as
ministers and members of the National Assembly. He also directed the Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN to
challenge the legality of states’ pension laws permitting former governors and
other ex-public officials to collect such pensions.
Many retired governors, such as
Bukola Saraki, Bola Tinubu, are benefitting from pension laws passed by the
houses of assembly in their states. In Zamfara, Governor Bello Matawalle
cancelled the payment after signing into law a bill passed by the Zamfara House
of Assembly.
In the latest ruling by the
Industrial Court, the claimant, Garba Umar was once the acting governor of
Taraba State. He dragged the state government to the court, claiming that he
was entitled to gratuity as a former governor of the state, 300 per cent of his
salary as medical allowance and other benefits as provided in Taraba State
Governor and Deputy Governor’s Pension Law, 2015.
But in its ruling, the court held
that it appeared that there was a “contradiction by the provision of section
124(5) ‘of the 1999 Constitution’ which enabled the House of Assembly of a
state to provide for pension or gratuity to governors and deputy governors
which items are also placed under the exclusive legislative list under Part 1,
of the Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.”
“The question then is how to
reconcile these two provisions of the constitution. The answer is by adopting a
purposeful approach by which the court is required to look at the constitution
as a whole and construe its provisions in such a way as to give effect to the
general and specific purposes for which it was enacted; that is good governance
and the welfare of all Nigerian based on the principles of equality and
justice.”
The court went further to hold
that the state houses of assembly in Nigeria lacked the power to fix any amount
in remuneration to its past governors and deputy governors as “pension or
gratuity unless the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission first
of all determined an amount as pension and gratuity to past governors and
deputy governors in which case such amount, so fixed, shall not exceed the
amount as have been determined by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and
Fiscal Commission.”
It said since the commission had
not fixed any amount as pension and gratuity to past governors and deputy
governors in Nigeria, any law made by any state house of assembly granting
pension and gratuity to its past governors and deputy governors was therefore
null and void.
The court, therefore, ruled that
the Taraba State governor and deputy governor’s pension law, 2015 is null and
void.”
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