Former Deputy Governor of Abia State, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has denied an advertorial alleging that he has been receiving pension from the state government and at the same time collecting remuneration as a senator.
Abaribe, currently representing Abia South in the Senate, said he was never a corrupt public officer, who is enriching himself while in office and at the expense of the large number of poor Nigerians.
He stated this in a letter his counsel, Mr. Ogechi Ogbonna of Beracha Solicitors wrote in reaction to an advertorial published on February 19, 2017, in which Abaribe was listed as part of the senators collecting pension from their states and still receiving remunerations from the federal government as senators.
The advertorial was sponsored by EIE Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and titled: ‘Who Is Serving Who?’
Since 2003 he left as the deputy governor of the state, Abaribe said he “has at no time till date been paid nor received pension from the Abia State Government or any of her agencies.”
Unlike civil servants who had served the Government of Nigeria for 35 years and were paid a single pension, Abaribe lamented that he was accused of earning pension from Abia State for 160 months while at the same time collecting public funds as for being a senator.
