Leke Baiyewu

Some senators have denied collecting pensions and benefits as former governors and ex-deputy governors of their states.

Those who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH lamented that their states owed them.

Most former governors and ex-deputy governors in the Senate, who were contacted by SUNDAY PUNCH, kept mum on the matter. Several senators in that category neither picked calls made to their telephone lines nor replied to text messages sent to them.



When former Nasarawa State Governor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, was contacted on the phone, the receiver listened to our correspondent’s question and said, “You have a wrong number.”

However, former Plateau State Governor, Senator Joshua Dariye, said he had not received any financial benefit since leaving office apart from a severance allowance of N600,000. He also dismissed claims by some Nigerians that former governors who are now in the Senate and collecting pension from their states are earning double salaries.

He said, “My response to this is that it is an overkill. Many people have written (about it) as if that is the only national issue or problem in Nigeria. There is Boko Haram, poverty and various crises everywhere.”

A former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, said she had not received any benefit from the state government since she left office. According to the Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate, Ekiti State Government has yet to refund the money she spent on behalf of the state while in office.

She said, “I have never received any. I don’t know anything about it. Ekiti has never paid me and I am speaking for myself. Even the money that I left behind when we left (impeached along with Governor Ayodele Fayose), nobody has paid it to me.”

Also, Senator Enyinaya Abaribe, who was Deputy Governor of Abia State, in a text message sent in response to SUNDAY PUNCH, said he had not been paid any benefit after he left office.

The message read, “I have never collected pension from Abia State. I resigned from Abia government on March 7, 2003, and lost. I should have been paid pension but Governor (Orji Uzo) Kalu, because I ran against him, refused to authorise payment for the ridiculous reason that I was impeached on the 14th of March, 2003; seven days after I resigned.

“So, from 2003 to 2007, I was not paid pension. I contested and won election into the Senate in June 2007. Since then, I have only been paid by the National Assembly.”

Apart from Dariye, Adamu, Olujimi and Abaribe, those contacted were Senators Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Theodore Orji (Abia); Mohammed Lafiagi (Kwara); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); George Akume (Benue); Sani Yerima (Zamfara); Adamu Aliero (Kebbi); Samuel Egwu (Ebonyi); Kabiru Gaya (Kano); Rabi’u Kwankwaso (Kano); and Danjuma Goje (Gombe).

Akpabio was out of Nigeria, according to one of his aides.

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, recently said he had stopped collecting pension in Kwara as a former governor of the state.


http://punchng.com/states-owing-us-benefits-ex-gov-deputies/

Can you imagine these blazing bastards?

Owing states or states owing you?

No be una fault, na the dry heads wey dey jump upandan dey support thieves I blame.

Mtchew.

nurex01:
Leke Baiyewu

Some senators have denied collecting pensions and benefits as former governors and ex-deputy governors of their states.

Those who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH lamented that their states owed them.

Most former governors and ex-deputy governors in the Senate, who were contacted by SUNDAY PUNCH, kept mum on the matter. Several senators in that category neither picked calls made to their telephone lines nor replied to text messages sent to them.



When former Nasarawa State Governor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, was contacted on the phone, the receiver listened to our correspondent’s question and said, “You have a wrong number.”

However, former Plateau State Governor, Senator Joshua Dariye, said he had not received any financial benefit since leaving office apart from a severance allowance of N600,000. He also dismissed claims by some Nigerians that former governors who are now in the Senate and collecting pension from their states are earning double salaries.

He said, “My response to this is that it is an overkill. Many people have written (about it) as if that is the only national issue or problem in Nigeria. There is Boko Haram, poverty and various crises everywhere.”

A former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, said she had not received any benefit from the state government since she left office. According to the Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate, Ekiti State Government has yet to refund the money she spent on behalf of the state while in office.

She said, “I have never received any. I don’t know anything about it. Ekiti has never paid me and I am speaking for myself. Even the money that I left behind when we left (impeached along with Governor Ayodele Fayose), nobody has paid it to me.”

Also, Senator Enyinaya Abaribe, who was Deputy Governor of Abia State, in a text message sent in response to SUNDAY PUNCH, said he had not been paid any benefit after he left office.

The message read, “I have never collected pension from Abia State. I resigned from Abia government on March 7, 2003, and lost. I should have been paid pension but Governor (Orji Uzo) Kalu, because I ran against him, refused to authorise payment for the ridiculous reason that I was impeached on the 14th of March, 2003; seven days after I resigned.

“So, from 2003 to 2007, I was not paid pension. I contested and won election into the Senate in June 2007. Since then, I have only been paid by the National Assembly.”

Apart from Dariye, Adamu, Olujimi and Abaribe, those contacted were Senators Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Theodore Orji (Abia); Mohammed Lafiagi (Kwara); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); George Akume (Benue); Sani Yerima (Zamfara); Adamu Aliero (Kebbi); Samuel Egwu (Ebonyi); Kabiru Gaya (Kano); Rabi’u Kwankwaso (Kano); and Danjuma Goje (Gombe).

Akpabio was out of Nigeria, according to one of his aides.

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, recently said he had stopped collecting pension in Kwara as a former governor of the state.


http://punchng.com/states-owing-us-benefits-ex-gov-deputies/

Kai! This one weak me. Imagine former gov.