Saraki Refunds Pension Money To Kwara
Senate President Bukola Saraki has refunded all pension money paid to him, according to the Secretary to Kwara State Government (SSG), Alhaji Isiaka Gold.
Making this known in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, on Wednesday through a press statement, Gold confirmed that Saraki has returned all monies paid to him as pension back to the coffers of the state government.
According to him, Saraki, who was a two-term governor of the state, has stopped receiving pension from the state since August 2015.
According to the statement, “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.
“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”.
Gold, who did not disclose the amount of money refunded by the Senate President, said Saraki is entitled to the money he returned as provided in the third schedule, Paragraph D (i) of the Governor and Deputy Governor ((payment of pension) Law, No. 12 of 2010 of Kwara State.
“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,” Gold stressed.
The SSG said the Senate President should be commended for his decision to abandon his legal entitlements. “It is the hope of the state government that this clarification will end all the controversy about this issue,” he added.
A civil society organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), had accused former governors of receiving double pay from government, and said it was illegal.
