The Abia State House of Assembly passed a law on Tuesday repealing Abia State Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law number 4 of 2021.
However, three former governors and a deputy in the state said they have not been receiving any pensions from the state government.
The former governors include Okezie Ikpeazu, T. A. Orji, and Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu, as well as the immediate past Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Ude Oko Chukwu.
The bill, titled H.A.B. 11, “The Abia State Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law Repeal Bill 2024,” was sponsored by the Majority Leader and member for Arochukwu State Constituency, Mr. Okoro Uchenna Kalu.
The Speaker, Chief Emmanuel Emeruwa, noted that the abrogation of the law was in line with the yearnings of the majority.
Earlier, the sponsor of the bill and Majority Leader, Mr Okoro Uchenna Kalu, described the bill as timely as it will help reduce the cost of governance and free funds that would have been deployed in the area to the development of the state and the welfare of a greater majority of the people who are in dire need of it and urged that an accelerated hearing and passage be given to the bill.
The Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly and Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Information, Chief Augustine Okezie, lauded his colleagues for the accelerated hearing and passage of the Abia State Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law Repeal Bill, 2024.
In a swift reaction, the spokesman for Okezie Ikpeazu, Sir Onyebuchi Ememanka, said, “The attention of the immediate past governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has been drawn to reports circulating online to the effect that the Abia State House of Assembly has repealed the 2001 law under which former governors and deputy governors are paid some money as pensions.
“The said reports, which are obviously sponsored, are mischievously couched to give the false impression that Dr Ikpeazu is among the former governors of the state currently receiving pensions 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 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 and advises the Abia State Government and her various organs to face the business of governance and desist from engaging in needless media sensationalism” and advises the general public to be properly guided”.
According to the liaison officer to Senator Theodore Orji, Hon. Ifeanyi Umere, “Throughout his tenure as governor of Abia for eight years, T. A. Orji has not received any penny as a pension” and called on the state assembly to come out with any evidence available to them, while an aide to Orji Uzor Kalu noted that as a former governor of the state, the senator did not receive any pension.
Also speaking, the immediate past Deputy Governor and former Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Ude Oko Chukwu said he had not received a dime as a pension, stating further, “I am aware of the law. For me, it is as good as not being there. If all past governors said they had not been paid anything, what is the essence of the existence of the law?”
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