It has been revealed that Nigeria former heads state and government have not not been paid their monthly allowances for the past ten months.
The beneficiaries includes former Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Ernest Shonekan, Abdulsamlami Abubakar and Goodluck Jonathan.
This revelation was made by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) David Babachir Lawal when the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs led by Senator Tijjani Kaura (APC Zamfara) visited his office on an oversight function in Abuja.
The SGF attributed the non-payment of the former leaders' allowances to lack of funds in service wide votes.
“There is a department responsible for payment of former presidents. Presently funds are not available in service wide votes to do that. We are aware there was a protest in Bayelsa State that the former president was not paid, but we’ve explained that he’s not the only one affected.
“Others affected are Inter-Religious Council, Traditional Rulers Council and so on. For some reasons, we have been writing and writing but there has been no response. And there is presently no money to pay them,” the SGF said.
The SGF said his office has written to the Presidency many times for release of money for payment and other pending functions of the office but no answer has been received.
Responding, the Senators condemned the development and insisted that joint efforts be made between the office of the SGF and the committee towards finding a solution to the problem which they described as unfortunate. They stress the need to draw the attention of the federal ministry of finance and the budget office for a quick action.
No comments:
Post a Comment