Benin – The Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mr Justin Okonoboh, has charged aggrieved civil society groups to challenge the state’s recently amended pension law in court rather than taking to violent protests.
On Nov. 16, the Edo assembly passed a bill for a law to amend the Pension Rights of Governors and Deputy Governors.
The house amended the law to include that former governors and their deputies shall now be entitled to a house worth N200 million and N100 million, respectively.
Okonoboh made the call when a group under the aegis of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations and Network of Civil Society Organisations of Nigeria visited him on Friday in Benin.
“I want to commend you for this interface. It will allow you to understand what we have done, especially in the bill we have just passed.
“The bill is not a new bill, it has been existing. We only amended it to add a house not exceeding N200 million and N100 million for the governor and deputy governor, respectively.
“What you should know is that the laws provide that the house should not exceed the stipulated amount and it is not binding on the executive to accent to the bill.
“Even if the governor accents to it, he will still need to present it to us in the budget.
“We will then determine whether to approve it or not. The bill has no time bound for its implementation.
“It can be implemented during recession or when the economy is out of recession,” he said.
The speaker appealed to the group to always interface with the house on burning issues before embarking on protest.
“If you are not satisfied with our explanation, you can then go to court so that the law will be set aside.
“Better still, you sponsor a private bill against it instead of protesting on the streets.’’
The speaker also explained that the law would only become effective if accented to, from this year, adding that past governors of the state would not benefit from the package.
According to him, laws are not made in retrospect.
Mr Abraham Oviawe, who led the group to the house said the passage of the bill was not in conformity with social change, adding that the law only empowered a handful of individuals.
“I want to say that there was a special motive behind the passage of the bill at this time when government cannot pay salaries and pensions.
“We are very pained because the interest of the people has been betrayed,” he said.
