25 Pro-Amaechi Lawmakers Defect to APC

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Governor Rotimi Amaechi

• Abe receives over 90 PDP decampees

By Ernest Chinwo 

The 25 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to  Governor Chibuike Amaechi yesterday formally announced their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Leader of the assembly, Chidi Lloyd,  made the declaration at the sitting of the assembly at the Old Government House Executive Council Chambers,  where the pro-Amaechi lawmakers have been sitting for about five months. Only about 13 of them were present at yesterday’s sitting.
He stated that they had ceased to be members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), adding that further correspondence to them should bear the APC.
Lloyd said: “The 25 pro-Amaechi lawmakers have asked me to declare our formal defection to theAPC. Henceforth, 25 of us should be referred to as APC members.

“We are telling the world today that we are all members of the APC. All correspondence to us should describe us as APC members.”
Responding to the defection, the Speaker, Otelemaba Dan-Amachree, requested his colleagues to document their decision.

Meanwhile, one of the pro-Amaechi lawmakers, Golden Chioma, who was kidnapped by gunmen, has been freed by his captors.

His release, yesterday morning, came less than 24 hours, after the seventh legislative assembly, in a motion of urgent attention, appealed to the suspected kidnappers to free him unhurt.

The lawmaker, who is representing Etche Constituency II and Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, was abducted by unknown gunmen on Tuesday, July 8, 2014, in Diobu axis of Port Harcourt.

It was reported that the captors did not establish contact with the victim’s family.
It could not be ascertained if ransom was paid before he regained freedom.
This came as no fewer than 90 members of the PDP in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state have equally parted ways with the PDP and moved over to the APC.

The former PDP members, including youths and women were officially received into the APC by a member of the National Assembly representing Rivers South-east senatorial district, Senator Magnus Abe.

Abe, who was in Afam, headquarters of Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state in continuation of his empowerment initiative, danced round the arena with the new party members, all of who were holding brooms.
Addressing the new members, the Senator assured that they will not regret their decision, because “you will be carried along”, describing the APC as the party to beat.
He disclosed that the leader of the party in the state, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, was not fighting for himself, but for the betterment of the state and called on the people to continue to support him.

“Our leader, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, is clear with what we want for Rivers State. He is not fighting for himself, he is fighting because of us, so that our state will be better. We made him governor and nobody can stay anywhere and dictate to Rivers people. If they want anything they should talk to him,” he said.

Abe, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), assured the over 90 persons who defected to the APC that they were now major stakeholders in the party and urged those who are yet to register officially with the party to do so in order to strengthen their participation in party activities.
According to Abe, “that thing that you have seen is what we saw and we left that place. And in this business, every human being is valuable, that is why we are receiving you with open arms.”

Earlier, leader of the decampees, Mr. Chukwu Umeh, said they dumped the PDP because the party was not the right vehicle that will take them to the promised land.
Umeh further said the PDP had lost its vision, adding that the people of Oyigbo no longer had confidence in it, because it is a failed party.

Continuing, he said, “we want the leadership of the APC to carry us along in the scheme of things and we will support them to the last.”

But in swift reaction, the state chapter of the PDP has said the claim that over 90 of its members decamped in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state was completely false and aimed at misleading the good people.

The Chairman of PDP in the state, Mr. Felix Obuah in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Jerry Needam, said all members of the PDP in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state are intact and not even a single member had decamped to the APC or any other political party.

The PDP said in the last few weeks, over 200 members of the APC in Oyigbo had decamped to the PDP and that the party was planning a reception ceremony for them.
“Our units and wards membership records in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state bear no such name like Mr. Chukwu Umeh, claimed to have led the decampees to APC.’’ PDP disclosed.

The party urged the public to ignore the story of its members in Oyigbo decamping into APC, as there is no truth in it, emphasising that the current game of the APC was to cajole people with money and lay claim to imaginary membership, having lost grip of the state, following the abysmal failure of the governor to deliver on his campaign promises and collapse of governance in the state. 

Implementing the Pension Reform Act

The new act is a good piece of legislation. But can it be implemented?

Two weeks ago, President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law the Pension Reform Bill which effectively repealed the 2004 Act. The president said the new act would consolidate the gains of the sector and address some of the observed lapses in the implementation of the previous Act. Last week, at the just concluded  World Pension Summit in Abuja with the theme, “Shaping the Future”, the president further affirmed his government’s determination “to digitise pension payments and streamline payment procedures to ensure prompt and ease of payment of pension benefits”.

Coming a decade after it was initially enacted, the Pension Act 2014 is aimed at establishing a uniform set of rules, regulations and standards for the administration and payment of retirement benefits to workers. And perhaps more important, the new legislation is expected to enhance the protection of pension funds and assets and tighten the loose ends that had crippled the regulatory and the enforcement capabilities of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM).

We endorse Pension Act 2014 which will have profound implications in both the public and private sectors. For instance, the new Act has upped the minimum contributions to the pension scheme from 15 to 20 per cent with the employer contributing 12 per cent of the monthly emolument and the employee, the remaining 8 per cent. The scheme is also becoming more inclusive. A private firm with up to three employees is now subject to the scheme unlike the repealed legislation which stipulated a minimum of five staff. An employee who retires before the age of 50 can also now withdraw 25 per cent of entitlements four months after retirement rather than wait for six months as it obtained in the past.

The new law makes provisions that will enable the creation of additional permissible investment instruments to accommodate initiatives for development, such as investment in the real sector – including infrastructure and real estate - without compromising the security of the assets. But also of premium importance, it law prescribes upward review of penalties and sanctions to pension defaulters and employers who fail to remit the deducted monies of employees.

Indeed, noteworthy in the Act is the provision on the touchy issue of embezzlement of pensioners’ funds. Even if not stiff enough in some respects, there are relatively good safeguards against impunity. For instance, any pension fund administrator who misappropriates or diverts funds is liable to a fine of an amount equal to three times what was misappropriated or 10 years imprisonment or both, upon conviction. The criticism of the old law is that it handled criminals with kid gloves. Nothing demonstrated this better than the police pension fraud case where the kingpin who looted some N3.2 billion pension funds in his custody was sentenced to two years imprisonment and even more ridiculous, or to a fine of N750,000.

Also worthy of mention is the provision which empowers the regulator, the PENCOM (subject to clearance from the Attorney-General of the Federation), to question and indeed initiate criminal proceedings against employers who persistently fail to deduct or remit pension contributions of employees to the right authorities within the stipulated time, a provision that was absent in the repealed Act.

No doubt, the new pension Act is a good piece of legislation. The rules have been turned inside-out and the requisite muscles have been given. If well implemented, it will certainly address the shortfall and challenges identified with the old law and ease the inefficient and cumbersome payment system to pension beneficiaries. It will also add value to the pension funds while ensuring that pensioners’ money is available when it is needed.

Yet a pertinent question remains: Will the implementation of Pension Act 2014 be different from that of the many other laws in our statute books that are observed more in the breach? We hope this can mark a departure.