The immediate past governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, said on Wednesday, that he has never received any money as a pension from the State Government since leaving office on May 29, 2023.
Ikpeeasu spoke on Wednesday, following reports that the Abia State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, passed a bill seeking to stop the payment of pensions to former governors and their deputies in the state.
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The bill, sponsored by Okoro Uchenna Kalu, the lawmaker representing the Arochukwu State Constituency, is designed to “ensure that the outrageous cost of governance is reduced to channel Abia State resources towards the development of the state.”
In 2001, Orji Kalu, the former governor of Abia State, who served from 1999 to 2007, signed the “Abia State Governors & Deputy Governors Pensions Law No. 4 of 2001”. Kalu is currently a Senator representing Abia North.
The law stipulated that the former governors and deputies are entitled to 100 percent of the annual basic salaries of the incumbent governor and deputy; their cooks, stewards, drivers, and gardeners are to be paid by the state; and they are entitled to three police officers and two operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Former governors are also entitled to two vehicles worth N20 million each every four years.
But former Governor Ikpeazu, speaking on Wednesday through his Chief Press Secretary, Sir Onyebuchi Ememanka, pointed out that reports of a bill repealing the state pension law are mischievously couched to give the false impression that he is among the former governors of the state currently receiving a pension from the Abia State Government.
“Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu wishes to make it abundantly clear that since handing over the reins of power as Governor of Abia State on May 29th, 2023, he has neither requested for, nor received from the Abia State Government, any dime under any guise whatsoever, and has no intentions of doing so.
“Former Governor Ikpeazu has since moved on with his life and is currently engaged in other areas of interest to him. He advises the Abia State Government and her various organs to face the business of governance and desist from engaging in needless media sensationalism. The general public should be properly guided, please,” he added.