Adebayo Alao-Akala
Oyo state former governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, has debunked the claim that past governors receive huge amount of money as monthly pension.
The governor described the claim as a shocking and unrealistic rumour.
Alao-Akala disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Tribune Online on Wednesday.
Reacting to the news about former Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari, who was alleged to have written his successor, Bello Matawalle, to demand payment of outstanding N10 million monthly pension, Alao-Akala said the claim may be a figment of some people’s imagination after all.
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The former governor of Oyo state stated that the amount payable as pension varies from state to state, said, no state in Nigeria can pay N10 million as pension to a former governor or as salary to a sitting governor.
Citing the case of Oyo, he said: “I was a former deputy governor and a state governor. I want to tell you that I don’t know where those people got that information from and I saw the letter but I don’t know if he was the one that wrote the letter.
“I doubt whether he has denied it too but I don’t think it is correct; it is not possible. Not even Lagos state can pay that amount to any former governor. Let me tell you what I know: Every four years, they’re supposed to change our car.”
He described as unfounded the claim in some quarters that every three years governors get six new cars. He added that it is untrue that deputy governors get up to five new cars every three years as being rumoured.
“My reply to this is that authoritatively as a former governor, I am not on this package. People must have been looking at me and other ex-governors and say that we are stinkingly rich. I collect less than a million naira a month as pension. I think it is about N700,000, I won’t lie to you. In that amount, allowances for the cook, the gardener and the security man is embedded.
“In fact, on assumption of office Makinde said that he thought his money would be about N5million. He donated his monthly salary to the pensioners… Of course, we are not in government but whatever is his salary is the same as our salary.
“The question is that is the present governor of Zamfara taking N10m? It is a constitutional matter; you cannot take money outside that law. It is a lie. No house is built for any governor in Oyo state.
“Some states build houses for past governors but we don’t have that law in Oyo state,” he said.
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