10th Senate: SERAP Notifies Akpabio and Others to “Disclose Pensions Paid To You As Ex-Governors”

The group claims that 14 former governors are currently serving in the 10th Senate.

The 10th Senate’s 13 former governors have been encouraged by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to “disclose the total amount of life pensions, if any, that have been received from your states as former governors.” The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has agreed to do this.

In a statement released on Sunday, Kolawole Oluwadare, the deputy director of SERAP, pleaded with the new lawmakers to “promptly clarify if you have collected and/or are currently collecting life pensions as former governors from your respective states, to stop collecting any such pensions and return the pensions collected to the treasury.”

The group claims that 14 former governors are currently serving in the 10th Senate.

“Nigerians expect you to act in the public interest,” the group wrote. “Nigerians expect you to stop collecting any life pensions from your respective states and return any such pensions that may have been collected to the treasury.”

“Collecting life pensions as former governors while serving in the Senate would clearly be against the law and would amount to abusing entrusted public positions,” the statement reads.

Oluwadare urges the previous governors to follow in the footsteps of former Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki, who ceased receiving a life pension while serving as governor of Kwara State and called former governors’ life pensions “immoral” in response to a request from SERAP.

Godswill Akpabio (Akwa-Ibom State), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo State), Adamu Aliero (Kebbi State), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi State), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State), and Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger State) were among the past governors who were identified as receiving pensions by the group.

Danjuma Goje (Gombe State), Ibrahim Danwkambo (Gombe State), Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara State), Gbenga Daniel (Ogun State), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto State), Orji Kalu (Abia State), Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe State), and Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa State) are the other members.

Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Edo, Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Benue, Gombe, Yobe, Taraba, Kaduna, Plateau, Katsina, Rivers, and Delta were among the states that had implemented life pensions for previous governors. These states continue to be among the poorest in the nation and several of them owe workers’ salaries.