A bill for a law seeking to place ex-governors of Benue State and their deputies on bogus gratuity, pension, and other benefits is raising dust, Daily Trust reports.
The governor-elect of Benue State, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia, has raised alarm over the bill, saying it seeks only the interest of the outgoing governor.
Initiated by outgoing governor, Samuel Ortom, the bill titled: “A bill for a law to make provisions for the maintenance of former governors of Benue State and their deputies” has passed its first reading.
A copy of the draft bill seen by Daily Trust indicates that section 2(a) (i) makes provision for the payment to the former governors of a monthly “stipend”, equivalent to the salary of a sitting governor, while section 2(a) (ii) makes provision for the payment to all former deputy governors of a monthly “stipend”, equivalent to the salary of a sitting deputy governor.
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Similarly, section 2(b) provides for the building of a permanent residential accommodation in any town “of their choice” in Nigeria, while sections 2(c) and (h) provide for the provisions of 4 new cars every four years for the former governors and 2 new cars every four years for former deputy governors.
The cars shall be serviced and maintained at the expense of the state, the bill states.
In the same vein, section 2(d) and (e) provides for six personal staff for the former governors and three for the former deputy governors to be paid for by the state while section 2(f) provides for 24-hour security surveillance and guard for all former governors and their deputies at their discretion.
While section 2 (g) provides for free medical treatment for them, their spouses, and at least 4 children under the age of 18, section 3 provides that all the above expenses can be monetised or cashed out.
Also, section 4 entitles former governors of the state to two vacations abroad annually and the former deputy governors to one vacation abroad annually.
Further scrutiny indicates that it is expected to take retroactive effect from 1999; implying that it will cover former governors and their deputies, like Sen. George Akume and his deputy, late Ogiri Ajene; Sen. Gabriel Suswam and his deputy, Steven Lawani as well as the outgoing governor, Samuel Ortom and his deputy, Engr. Benson Abounu.
It was also gathered that all the proposed entitlements are for life even as the expenses are to be charged on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state (meaning that they are on first line charge) and are to take priority against other expenses like salaries, pensions and gratuity of the citizens.
In the same vein, all the entitlements, except the vacation, can be converted into cash and paid out to the beneficiaries.
Why the bill is a scam— Legal practitioner
Describing the proposed bill as a “pension scam”, a Makurdi-based legal practitioner, Terhemen Oscar Aorabee said the bill is capable of totally crippling the state treasury and economy.
“For instance, section 1 makes this bill, when passed into law, have a retroactive effect. This means that it will be backdated to cover all governors and their deputies democratically elected since 1999.
“Again, the so-called monthly stipends to be paid to the beneficiaries, apart from being for life, backdated, and monetised, are capable of totally crippling the state treasury and economy.
“Remember that the bill does not say that the stipend should be equivalent to the basic salary of a sitting governor but the “salary.” My research shows that the monthly basic salary of a sitting governor is N2,223,794 while the monthly salary, comprising allowances, is N11,540,896.
“This means that Sen. George Akume alone will be entitled to N138, 490, 752 per annum from the time he left office till his death. The same for Senator Suswam and Gov Ortom and the governors after them,” Aorabee said.
On the proposed provision of residential accommodation for governors and their deputies, the legal practitioner said: “I assume that none of them would want to have a house built for that purpose in Makurdi, Gbajimba, Anyiin or Wannune. They would rather prefer to have houses in Banana Island in Lagos or Asokoro in Abuja where the cost of buying plain land alone will cost hundreds of millions and building could cost a billion or more.”
Governor-elect raises alarm
The governor-elect of Benue State, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia, has raised alarm over the bill, which in his estimation seeks only the interest of the outgoing governor.
Kula Tersoo, the Director of Communications to the governor-elect, said it was appalling that Ortom who throughout his time as governor subjected pensioners to untold hardship that led most of them to destitution now wants to be a pensioner.
“We, therefore, call on all citizens of conscience to intervene by restraining their representatives at the state Assembly from initiating any action that will facilitate passing the bill in order not to deepen the despondency of the state,” Tersoo said.
The state chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Terungwa Igbe, said he was just hearing about the bill and would not be able to comment on it until he understands the content.
“I am just hearing about the bill from you for the first time. I will need to see a copy to read and understand the advantages and disadvantages of it before commenting on it,” Igbe said.
Bill passes first reading
Despite opposition, the bill has passed its first reading, the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Engr. Titus Uba confirmed.
Uba’s media aide, Wuese Orshi, who confirmed that the bill has been presented and read for the first time on the floor of the Assembly said: “It has passed first reading on the floor of the House.”
Meanwhile, state Commissioner of Information, Mike Inalegwu, could not be reached by telephone while the Special Adviser on Media and ICT, Terver Akase, said he was at a meeting and could not respond immediately to the questions.
Akase subsequently declined to comment on the bill and instead referred Daily Trust to the speaker of the state assembly.
Our correspondent also contacted the Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, but he neither responded to calls nor text messages put through his telephone line at the time of this report.
By Fidelis Mac-Leva (Abuja) & Hope Abah Emmanuel (Makurdi)
