Femi Falana
Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana,
has called on Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to return the entire pension he
received since 2007 from Kwara State government to the state. Femi Falana
Falana also asked the Senate president to relinquish the house the state
government bought for him in Abuja.
Following 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,
Saraki said last week that he had written to the state government to stop his
pension.
But Falana in a statement,
yesterday, 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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