On Tuesday, Bukola Saraki, Senate President, told journalists that he no longer receives pension from the Kwara State Government, where he was Governor for eight years.
But the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) urged him to return the pensions he had already collected to the state government or donate it to charity.
No sooner had SERAP released its press statement than the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) took to its Twitter handle to correct SERAP, saying that Saraki does fund several charity projects using his pension.
The party shared two of such instances.
There is nothing illegal about the pension, it absolutely lawful. However, it is a moral issue. SP has done right tn https://t.co/wyq1ey7Ei6
— APC Kwara State (@KwaraAPC) August 2, 2017
SEPTEMBER 2015
In September 2015, two best graduating students for the 2014/2015 academic session of the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, of Kwara State origin, were each granted scholarship courtesy of the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Pension Scholarship Scheme, (ABSPSS).
The students, Mohammed Abdullahi-Tosin from Irepodun Local Government Area and Adam Ndakuku from Edu Local Government, were presented with a cheque of N500, 000 each by Saraki, who noted that the award could be an endowment for life.
Saraki said his aim was to ensure that the serves “as a form of social security to support existing state Scholarship Scheme.”
DECEMBER 2016
Similarly, in December 2016, Saraki offered postgraduate scholarships to 73 Kwara State indigenes who graduated with first class degrees from various universities across the country in the 2015/2016 academic session.
Saraki said the gesture was based on his belief that human resources is of greater worth than natural resources.
“What we have here is worth more than many barrels of oils and worth more than many carats of gold,” he said at the ceremony.
It is however not clear when Saraki wrote the Kwara State government instructing it to stop his pension payment.
On Tuesday, Saraki told newsmen that he no longer collects pension. He said: “No, I’m not collecting pension; the moment I saw that allegation, I wrote to my state to stop my pension.”
However, in a facebook post in December 2014, prior to the 2015 general election, Saraki said he was using his accumulated pension benefits of N45 million to kick-start the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Students Foundation (ABSSF).
“Senator Saraki … will be donating his accrued pension arrears from the time of his Governorship (45 Million Naira) which he has not taken a kobo of, to kick-start the start-up funding of the foundation,” read a message by Bamikole Omisore his media aide.
Saraki later tweeted: “Since I left office in 2011, I have not accessed any portion of my pension. It has now accrued over N45 million, which I am donating.”
It is not immediately clear whether Saraki continued to receive pension from the Kwara State government afterwards.