Follow Us on Google
…Fayemi threatens to sue SERAP
From Magnus Eze, Abuja
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his Labour and Employment counterpart, Senator Chris Ngige, have denied collecting double emoluments from either the state or federal governments.
The two ministers, who were governors of Ekiti and Anambra states, respectively, were listed as public office holders allegedly earning multiple emoluments by the Social-Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP), in its petition to the Attorney-General of the Federation.
In their separate reactions in Abuja yesterday, the ministers said they had not received any form of benefits from their states since vacating office, adding that SERAP should have done painstaking investigation before making hasty and unsubstantiated allegations.
The former Ekiti State governor, therefore, challenged SERAP to make public details or proof of pension and any other remuneration he was alleged to be enjoying from the state government since leaving office as governor.
He gave the group seven days to retract the allegation or be ready for legal consequences, if it failed to show concrete evidence of the alleged pension payment.
Fayemi said he had not received a kobo either as pension (as passed by the State House of Assembly) or as severance package (approved by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission) from the Ekiti State government since he left office about three years ago.
While he subscribed to public scrutiny of public officials, the former governor admonished that such an endeavour should be done with due diligence in order to avoid making wild allegations capable of misleading the public.
In explaining his own circumstance, Ngige said: “I neither draw from nor have at any time drawn double emoluments from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation or Anambra State, having been elected or appointed into public service positions at different times.
“I wish to put on record that, since I left office in 2006 as governor of Anambra State, through the four years I spent in the Seventh Senate (June 2011-2015) and currently as the minister of labour and employment with effect from November 11, 2015, I have never drawn a dime, even in the intervening period that I was not in public office, as salary, emolument and pension from the Anambra State government coffers.
“In fact, I have not received any severance benefit as prescribed in the Anambra State House of Assembly law on pensions and other welfare and benefits for former governors and deputy governors (2006) and amended 2013.”
Aside the two utility vehicles given to me some years ago, I have not accessed any of the privileges and other lawful trappings due to the office,” he declared.
