Saraki To Senate: Give My Severance Package To Leah Sharibu’s Family, Others

Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, will not be getting severance allowance after leaving office as Senate President and chairman of the 8th National Assembly.

This comes as he has directed the management of the National Assembly to distribute all his severance benefits to the families of Leah Sharibu and two other aid workers killed by Boko Haram terrorists.

Sharibu is the only girl that was not released after about 112 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, 2018. She has remained in captivity of the Islamist group for allegedly refusing to denounce her Christian faith.

The Senate President also directed the management of the upper legislative chamber to give part of his benefits to children of late Senators who are in need of financial assistance.

Also to partake from the package, according to Saraki’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, are the families of Hussaini Ahmed Khoisan and Hauwa Liman, the two aid workers killed by the insurgents.

In the case of the late senators’ children, Saraki directed a Trust Fund should be established by management of the National Assembly for those who may require financial assistance in furtherance of their education.

He stated that his decision to use the severance package to support the selected victims of the insurgency was based on the fact that their cases represented some of the most touching humanitarian issues debated at the plenary during the four-years of the Eighth Senate and on which his colleagues and himself made emotional and passionate speeches.

According to him, 20 percent of the severance allowance is to be donated to the family of Leah Sharibu while 20 percent is also to be paid to the family of Hauwa Liman, the aid worker brutally murdered by Boko Haram after she was captured.

Another 20 percent is to be donated to the family of the second aid worker, Hussaini Ahmed Khoisan, also murdered in the same circumstance by Boko Haram.

The remaining 40 percent should be used by the National Assembly Management to set up a TRUST FUND that will assist children of deceased members of the Eighth Senate who are in financial need for their education.

According to him: “It is my hope that this TRUST FUND should grow with more contributions from my dear colleagues, present, past and future, who may be moved to put in additional money into it.

“The Clerk of the National Assembly will immediately get an official letter from me mandating him to act as stated above on the disbursement of my Severance Allowance.”