TNG Exclusive: Uproar as Delta lawmakers move to make the office of Acting Governor pensionable
..if passed Sam Obi to earn over N100m annually for acting for six weeks
There’s palpable anger among Deltans as Delta State Assembly members move to make the office of an acting governor in the state pensionable
The law if finally passed will make it possible for whoever acted as governor to earn pension for life.
The only Delta to have performed this role is Sam Obi who acted for Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan after the court sent him packing from Government House Asaba.
If finally passed into law, Obi would earn over N100million annually for occupying Government House for just six weeks.
Recall that just last week ex-Governor Abdulaziz Yari had written his successor, Bello Matawalle over the non-payment of his outstanding monthly allowance and pension.
In a letter dated October 17, 2019, Yari addressed the incumbent state governor, informing him that he (Yari) is entitled to N10 million monthly as an upkeep allowance, but that he has only been paid twice since he left the office.
Apparently peeved by the former governor’s request, the state government replied by abrogating the law.
Though the Nigerian constitution does not have such a provision, Delta State may just be the first to experiment with such a law in Nigeria.
TNG investigation into this matter revealed that this is a time bomb ticking and will soon explode.
See details of the Bill exclusively obtained by TNG and constitutional footnote:
Section 124(5) of the 1999 constitution as amended simply stipulates that…provisions may be made by a law of a house of Assembly for the grant of a pension or gratuity to or in respect of a person who had held office as a gov or deputy gov and was not removed from office as a result of impeachment: and any pension granted by virtue of any provisions made in pursuance of this subsection shall be a charge upon the consolidated revenue fund of the state.
The executive Bill is at the committee stage of the state Assembly where all the inputs and thruputs are at the completion stage.
The short title of the Bill is: ‘A Bill for a Law to Amend the Delta Governor and Deputy Governor, Pension Right and other Benefits Law 2005 (As Amended) For the Benefit of Including The Pension and Entitlement of a Former Acting Governor And Related Matters Connected Therewith’.
Clauses one and two of the Bill state as follows:
* This law may be cited as the Governor and Deputy Governor Pension Right and Benefits (Amendment) Law 2019 and shall come into effect 30 days after Amendment.
* The Delta State Governor Deputy Governor Pension Rights and Other Benefits Law 2005 as amended thereinafter referred to as Principal Law is hereby amended as follows:
* Section 2 is hereby amended to include the following
*’Acting Governor’ means a person who acts as a Governor pursuant to the removal of a substantive governor by an older of the court.
*Section 3 (1)
Notwithstanding the provision of Section 3 above, a person who holds office as acting governor having not been impeached from office shall on leaving office be entitled to a pension for life and other Benefits as stipulated in Schedule 1 “Table 8” Schedule 2 and part 3 only.
Section 6 of the Principal Law is hereby amended to include a new Section ‘2’
See Table Below and other details:
TNG’s further probe revealed that “the whole exercise smirks of ethnicity because Sam Obi who is the only Deltan who served in that capacity for only six weeks is Gov Okowa’s kinsman.
” If it were to be an Urhobo or Ijaw definitely this fraud won’t be perpetuated but since the man is his brother what do you expect.
“We are all waiting for the law to sail through but the gospel truth is that this is one fraud too many in the state, a source in Asaba told TNG.