Disgruntled Benue lawmakers reject Ortom’s pension bill.

Due to the non-payment of six months’ salary arrears and other allowances, members of the Benue State House of Assembly have suspended their work, which has put the contentious executive pension bill under review at risk of failure.

Remember that an executive pension bill was introduced by the departing Samuel Ortom administration?

Attempting to get former governors and their appointees pensions, bonuses, and other benefits.

The bill, which has drawn criticism from some state residents, including the governor-elect, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, is intended to, among other things, give former governors and deputy governors access to permanent housing in any location of their choosing throughout the nation, four new cars every four years, and two new cars every four years for former deputy governors.

When the bill is passed after first reading, it will also give former governors and deputy governors access to six personal staff members each. Additionally, it offers free medical care to the previous governors, their spouses, and at least four minor children.

The House of Assembly has suspended sitting until all members’ emoluments have been paid, according to a member who spoke exclusively to our correspondent on Tuesday under the condition of anonymity.

The legislator lamented that the lawmakers were owed six months’ worth of salary arrears and allowances, claiming that the departing governor met with the Assembly’s People’s Democratic Party caucus last weekend.

“During the meeting, he (Ortom) committed to paying all unpaid allowances and salary with May allocation prior to his departure on May 29.

“As of this writing (Tuesday afternoon), we lawmakers have not received our December 2022 salaries, not to mention January, February, March, and April of this year. Now, six months have passed. Do you know that three months’ worth of overhead is owed to the House as well?

In light of this, we have declined to work on the pension bill. Until all of our emoluments are paid, we, the members, have suspended our meetings.

The ex-governors’ pension bill, the public account bill, and the bill amending tertiary education are some of the significant bills still pending before the House, according to the lawmaker.

Tertsea Gbisea, the head of the Benue State House of Assembly’s information committee, denied, however, that the House had canceled sessions because salaries and other remuneration had not been paid.

Gbisea claimed that the reason the House hadn’t met was due to official obligations.

“The House has not adjourned, but the point is that members have been engaged in official business. Members had previously traveled for electioneering, and following that, some of our members, including myself, went on an annual trip to the United States. We have recently returned. We should have started this trip a year ago.

Others, who were unable to obtain US visas, are currently in Abuja attempting to obtain visas for one of the European nations. We will return and take care of the necessary things as soon as we are finished with all of these, Gbisea said.

When questioned about the unpaid wages, the lawmaker claimed that Benue lawmakers were not unusual in their circumstance.

Our situation is not unique, he continued, as we are owed the same number of months’ worth of unpaid wages as other government employees. The governor has stated that all of these are due to a lack of funding and has promised to make everything right.

Gbisea stated in regards to bills before the House that he would not guarantee their passage prior to the departure of the departing government.

He remarked, “I can’t say whether the pension and other bills before the House will pass or not. You are aware that each bill is evaluated independently.

“When bills are presented to the chamber’s members, we have a duty to do justice by sending them to the proper committee. No bill has a predetermined outcome; it all depends on the debate that will ensue and whether the answer to that question is yes or no.