The All Progressives Congress chairman in Kwara State, Alhaji Ishola Balogun-Fulani, has faulted the allegation that the Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was drawing salaries from the state government after the expiration of his tenure as governor of the state in 2011.
A detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had in his testimony at the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Tuesday, said investigations by the anti-graft agency revealed that Saraki received salaries from the state government for four years.
But the Kwara Government in defence of the embattled Senate president, who is facing trial on 13-count charges bordering on alleged false assets declaration, said the EFCC mistook the former governor’s approved pensions, for salaries.
Weighing in on the controversy, Mr. Balogun-Fulani, while addressing journalists yesterday in Ilorin, the state capital, said Saraki was only drawing his constitutionally approved pension.
The APC chairman said as the majority leader of the sixth legislature in the state, he anchored the bill on the approval of pension and gratuity for former governors and their deputies in the state.
He said the bill went through legislative debate and public hearing before it was passed into law.
The Kwara APC chairman further stated that the initiation and eventual passage of the bill followed the recommendation of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC) on pension and gratuity for former governors and their deputies.
“The payment of these entitlements is not peculiar to Kwara State, it is applicable to other states of the federation.
“In most states, both the former governors and their deputies are enjoying the retirement pension and gratuity as applicable to Saraki and his deputy in Kwara State”, he said.
