Saraki has returned his entire pension says Kwara

Saraki has returned his entire pension says Kwara

- Senate president Bukola Saraki in keeping with his earlier words has returned all the pension paid to him

- The refund was due to prodding by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, who criticized the Senate president

- The state government also made it clear that the decision was based on moral grounds

After continued probing by Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, the Senate president Bukola Saraki has returned the entire money paid to him as pension by Kwara state.

Falana also asked him to relinquish the house the state government bought for him in Abuja.

On Wednesday, August 9, Sola Isiaka, secretary to the Kwara state government, said Saraki has refunded the pension.

According to The Cable, the statement reads: “The attention of Kwara state government has been drawn to issues surrounding the payment of pensions to former governors of the state, especially the senate president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, CON.

“As a result, the state government wish to make the following clarifications: That Dr Saraki, as a two-term governor, is entitled to pension as stipulated by the third schedule, Paragraph D (i) of the governor and deputy-governor ((payment of pension) Law, No. 12 of 2010 of Kwara state.

READ ALSO: Kwara youths attack Falana for criticizing Saraki

“That the said pension has been duly remitted to his account, like other former governors’, since he left office but when via a letter dated 20th August 2015 addressed to the state government, Dr Saraki requested that the payment of pension to his account be stopped and the amount already credited to the account be refunded to the government, the state government promptly complied.

“That the government not only stopped the payment of the said pension, the amount already paid into Dr Saraki’s account since he left office was deducted from the money owed to him as well as his other outstanding lawful entitlements.

“In view of the foregoing, it should be noted that neither the Kwara state government nor Dr Bukola Saraki violated the state pension law or any other law for that matter. The state pension law empowers the state government to pay pension to former governors of the state.”

The state government also added that Saraki was not forced, instead “considered the morality of the situation in which the pension would put him since he is still a serving senator and chose to abandon his legal rights.'

Legit.ng earlier reported that after many complaints that former governors who are currently senators or ministers were still receiving pension and salary in their new jobs.

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The president of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said he has stopped collecting pension in Kwara as a former governor. Saraki said that he wrote a letter to the state government to stop the payment of the pension after the complaints arose.

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Source: Legit.ng

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