From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi
Benue State High Court in Gboko will on May 5 begin hearing of a suit challenging a pension bill sent to the state House of Assembly by outgoing Governor Samuel Ortom.
The case was instituted yesterday by a group, Incorporated Trustees of Bridges and Hands Foundation.
Speaker of the House of Assembly, Titus Uba; Clerk, Bernad Nule; and Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Mike Gusah.were listed as the defendants.
Ortom recently sent the bill titled “A bill to make provisions for the maintenance of former governors and their deputies and other-related matters connected thereto” to the House.
The bill seeks to provide life pension for former governors and deputy governors of the state..
In the originating summons, the group asked the court to determine the following:
* whether or not the bill is reasonably justifiable in a democracy when persons who served the state as civil servants for 35 years are owed over 35 months of pensions and gratuities;
* whether or not the House can legitimately legislate on the bill since the entitlements of former governors and their deputies are decided by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission and paid from the Federation Account during their tenure..
* whether or not the House will not be acting ultra vires to legislate on the bill; and
* whether or not the court has jurisdiction to restrain the defendants from proceeding with the bill.
The group is also seeking declarations: that bill is unreasonable and unjustifiable given the current economic challenge facing the state..
Besides, it wants a declaration that no item under the concurrent list empowers the House to legislate on the maintenance of former governors and their deputies since they drew their salaries and remunerations from the Federation Account when they were in power.
Apart from seeking a perpetual injunction stopping the defendants, it wants a declaration that former governors and their deputies in the state are not retired civil servants that are statutorily entitled to pensions and gratuities.
The Nation gathered that all parties to the suit were directed to be served with relevant processes ahead of May 5.
Governor-elect Hycinth Alia had 16 days ago kicked against the bill which the House denied knowledge of.
Alia warned that passing such a bill would deepen the dependence of the state on the Federation Account.