By Modupe Gbadeyanka
There are plans by some persons to revive the controversial Enugu Gubernatorial Pension Bill Amendment, the Save Enugu Group (SEG) has alerted.
The bill was suspended after a public outcry. The document intends to give humongous life pensions to former state governors in the midst of paucity of funds to run the state affairs.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr Willy Ezugwu, the group said it would do everything within the laws of the land to resist this move it described as “clandestine.”
SEG further described those pushing for this bill as “desperate and insensitive members of the Enugu State House of Assembly.”
The group insisted that “any attempt to reintroduce the amendments will be strongly resisted today, tomorrow and forever.”
“We recall that the State House of Assembly earlier told Enugu people that they merely suspended legislative action on the bill. It was not the demand of the Enugu people.
“The collective demand of the people is the withdrawal of the bill, not the suspension of legislative action on it. We, therefore, insist that the bill must be formally withdrawn,” the group demanded.
Warning that “the desperation of the principal officers of the Enugu State House of Assembly to satisfy the interest of their paymasters will set the state on fire”, the group demanded “unreserved apologies from the Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, Mr Edward Uchenna Ubosi, and the House leader, Mr Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, to the people of they are seeking to impoverish immediately the bill is withdrawn.
“We call on the constituents of the Speaker and those of the House Leader to gear up for a recall process as soon as they carry out their underground plot to secretly reintroduce the obnoxious amendment bill.
“They must be told that our dear state cannot afford to spend N2 billion annually on already rich former governors and their deputies for life,” SEG declared.
Adedapo Adesanya