Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State yesterday explained the reason behind the passage of the amended Pension Law of Akwa Ibom State, which had been in existence since 2000, saying the law, contrary to media reactions, was meant to block loopholes and check abuses of the open-ended privileges extended to former chief executives and their deputies.
The governor, who gave the explanation while signing the amended law stated that, “ with the signing of this law, it supersedes the existing law passed by the previous administration, which had been in existence since 2000.
He said: “ The Nigerian constitution empowers the State Houses of Assembly to make laws for the wellbeing of its people; so, we have today, made the Pension Law for former governors and their deputies. This law was made in the Year 2000 and was amended in 2006 and is now being amended in 2014.
“The new law states that all staff of the former governors, should not earn more than N5 million annually and staff of former deputy governors should not earn more than N2 million annually.
With this development, Akpabio noted: “No former governor can spend more than N100 million in a year for medical expenses and no former deputy governor can spend more than N50 million for medical expenses, because such extra money would not be spent by the state government. This is because we are making sure that we cover all the loopholes of financial wastage.
“For the widows of former governors, they would receive a minimum of N1million monthly for medical expenses and N500, 000 for the widows of former deputy governors.”
Governor Akpabio also disclosed that the law covers those who served in the old Cross River State, adding that the law was to streamline and bring sanity in the spending of state finances, which he said, had been misinterpreted by the public and caused a lot of misrepresentation on the Internet by the people.
No comments:
Post a Comment