The Benue State House of Assembly, on Monday, repealed the law that made provision for the payment of life pension to former elected governors and their deputies.
The law, providing life benefits for ex-governors and deputy governors from 1999, was initiated by the immediate-past governor, Samuel Ortom, in the twilight of his administration last year.
The bill, which was hurriedly assented to by Ortom on the eve of his exit, provided for the payment of a stipend of N40m in four months in addition to the provision of two Special Utility Vehicles.
The law also provided for six stewards to a former governor while a former deputy governor was to be entitled to N25m as a stipend in four months, one SUV, and three stewards.
But the House of Assembly, on Monday, repealed the law, stating that the provisions were too exorbitant to maintain.
Reacting to the development in an interview with The PUNCH, Ortom’s aide, Terver Akase, said the ex-governor was unfazed or undisturbed.
“It was the state Assembly that passed the bill into a law and if the same Assembly repeals the law, there is nothing anyone can say,” Akase said.
At the Monday plenary, the House, which went on Committee of Whole, debated and unanimously adopted the resolution of the committee to scrap life pensions for ex-governors and their deputies.
Leading the debate on the bill during Monday’s plenary, the House committee chairman, Douglas Akya, representing Makurdi South State Constituency, described the ex-governors’ pension as ‘exorbitant’.
He maintained that the state could not not fund it from its lean resources.
He said, “The law was not made in the best interest of the state, particularly at a time when workers were owed several months of salaries, pension and gratuity of retired workers are not paid.”
Other lawmakers who contributed to the debate described the law as anti-masses.
The development in Benue State comes about two months after the Abia State House of Assembly repealed the law allowing ex-governors and deputy governors to draw life pensions.
The Abia State of Nigeria Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Repeal Law of 2024 was assented to by Governor Alex Otti on March 31, 2024.
