SERAP Wants President Tinubu To Obey Court Judgment Stopping Pensions To Former Governors

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been called upon to emulate the governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, by obeying the judgment ordering the Federal Government (FG) to recover pensions collected by former governors and to challenge the legality of states’ pension laws permitting those involved to collect such outrageous pensions.

The call came from a Lagos-based human rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), through a statement issued by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.

Referring to its letter dated March 23, 2024, SERAP stated, “We urge you to emulate the good example of Governor Otti by urgently obeying the judgment, something which former president Muhammadu Buhari blatantly failed to do. 

“Unless the judgment is immediately obeyed, former governors and their deputies, including those now serving as ministers in your administration and members of the National Assembly who receive pensions, would continue to evade justice for their actions.

“SERAP agrees with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s conclusion that states’ pension laws are ‘acts of daylight robbery’, and his call for such laws to be abolished by other state governors.”

According to the group, immediately obeying the judgment would show the sovereignty of the rule of law in Nigeria and go a long way in protecting the integrity of the country’s legal system.

“Obeying the judgment would also show you as a defender of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended), the rule of law, and public interest within government.

“Nigeria’s democracy needs courts so that public officials and private actors, including former governors and their deputies collecting life pensions, exotic cars and other allowances from their states, can be held accountable for any infraction of Nigerian laws.

“Mr Buhari turned a blind eye to the judgment. State governors have failed to provide names of former governors and their deputies who have collected and continue to collect pensions from their states and the amount so far spent on these ex-officials.

“Constitutionalism and the rule of law are not in conflict with democracy; rather, they are essential to it. 

“Justice Oguntoyinbo’s judgment has pointed the way for your government to provide the leadership to ensure the reform of pension laws allowing former governors and their deputies to collect lifetime salaries and allowances. It is now time for your government to restore the rule of law systemically,” the human rights group added.

The judgment was delivered by Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court of Nigeria on November 26, 2019.

It would be recalled that Otti had last week signed into law the bill to repeal ‘The Abia State Governors and Deputy Governors Pensions Law No 4 of 2001’, consequent upon the passing by the House of Assembly. 

Under the repealed law, former governors and deputy governors in the state were paid lifetime salaries and got houses in Abia and Abuja. 

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