Headline

Buhari, Osinbajo, Others To Get N64.72bn Severance Packages – Report

Published

2 years ago

May 28, 2023

The final pay in office for President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, state governors and other political appointees about to leave office may cost the country about N64.72bn.

According to The PUNCH, the figure also covers the pay for ministers, commissioners, National Assembly members, and special advisers.

It, however, does not include special assistants and state assembly members.

The allocations by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission for salaries and allowances for one month, as well as severance gratuity (300 per cent of basic salary), were analysed to arrive at the figures.

More specifically, aside from the basic for the last month in office, the figure includes allowances, such as hardship allowance (50 per cent of basic salary), Consistency allowance (250 per cent of basic salary), motor vehicle fueling allowance (75 per cent of basic salary), entertainment allowance (45 per cent of basic salary), among others.

As stipulated by RMAFAC, Buhari is expected to get N1.71m, which includes basic salary and a few allowances and N10.54m as severance gratuity.

Vice-President Osinbajo is expected to get N1.01m plus N9.09m severance pay.

The eight special advisers in the Presidency are expected to get N590,957, which includes basic salary and a few allowances, and N5.83m severance pay each.

In total, N51.37m will be spent on the special advisers under the Presidency.

There are 44 ministers under Buhari, consisting of 27 federal ministers and 17 ministers of state.

While each minister is entitled to N6.73m (which includes basic salary, some allowances and severance pay), each minister of state is entitled to N6.5m.

In total, they would get N292.21m, with ministers getting N181.71m and ministers of states receiving N110.5m.

Each special adviser under the minister is entitled to a final pay of N6.42m. With each minister having one special adviser, the total sum of N282.48m will be spent.

The PUNCH checks indicate that about 327 National Assembly members would not be returning to the office.

This is made up of 76 Senators and 251 members of the House of Representatives.

While the senators will get N7.14m each, the House of Representatives members will get N6.75m each.

In total, the final pay in office of the 327 National Assembly members will cost the country about N2.24bn.

Although governorship elections were held in about 28 states, no fewer than 18 state governors will hand over to their successors on May 29, 2023.

The outgoing governors include Nyesom Wike (Rivers State), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta State), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom State), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano State), Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa State), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara State), Ben Ayade (Cross River State), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia State), and David Umahi (Ebonyi State).

Other outgoing governors include Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State), Samuel Ortom (Benue State), Darius Ishaku (Taraba State), Abubakar Bello (Niger State), Abubakar Bagudu (Kebbi State), Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna State), Simon Lalong (Plateau State), Aminu Masari (Katsina State) and Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State).

The outgoing governors will be completing two terms of eight years in office on May 28, 2023, except Zamfara’s Matawalle, who lost his re-election attempt.

Each governor is entitled to a final pay of N7.32m while the deputy governor gets N6.96m. In total, state governors will get N131.76m while their deputies would be paid N125.28m.

With each commissioner entitled to N4.42m, a total of 356 state commissioners will get N1.57bn.

Special advisers at the state level are by law entitled to N4.13m each. The 18 states have about 14,529 special advisers in total, which would cost the public treasury over N60bn.

Rivers State is expected to pay out a huge final pay on account of the high number of political appointees engaged by Governor Nyesom Wike, who last year appointed 14,000 special advisers.

The beneficiaries of the end-of-tenure pay also include the eight commissioners.

The Enugu State House Assembly has a total of 24 seats while the executive arm boasts 25 commissioners with an undisclosed number of special advisers.

Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State was reported to have appointed over 50 special advisers. The governor recently appointed another 15 special advisers to compensate the members of his party who lost out in the Peoples Democratic Party primaries. The state also boasts of about 21 commissioners supervising different ministries.

The PUNCH earlier reported that no fewer than 18 outgoing state governors will retire into lives of luxury with generous pension benefits despite mounting debts and unpaid workers’ salaries.

The PUNCH investigations showed that the governors, who will hand over to their successors on May 29, 2023, would be leaving behind at least N3.06tn debt for the incoming administrations.

According to data from the Debt Management Office, states’ debts included N2.27tn domestic loans and $1.71bn foreign borrowing.

In a report, a senior economist with SPM Professionals, Mr Paul Alaje, described the pay and benefits as a burden on the states.

He said, “The pension is a burden for any payer, the government and the state. It only shows that people think they don’t have a life outside political offices and that is why such an amount will be budgeted for somebody who is no longer in office and who is not contributing directly to the growth and development of the state… It is unrealistic for this practice to continue. More than 60 to 70 per cent of our states are bleeding in terms of financial boost and this continues every four years.

“What we are doing is, we are deliberately plunging our country into a coma. A time will come and we are close to it when all we are generating as internally generated revenue will just be enough salaries and pensions, and only take care of political officeholders without any infrastructural development. We must condemn in strong terms the spending of the little resources we have to better the lives of politicians at the detriment of the states.”
PUNCH

Headline

Trump Threatens To Unleash ‘Hell’ On Hamas

Published

11 hours ago

October 4, 2025

Editor

US President Donald Trump has given Hamas until 2200 GMT on Sunday to accept his 20-point plan for peace in Gaza, warning the Palestinian militant group faced “all hell” if it did not agree to the terms.

The US leader set the deadline — which would fall at 1:00 a.m. Monday in Gaza — after an official for the Islamist movement told AFP earlier on Friday that the group still needed time to study the proposal to end nearly two years of devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

“If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

The proposal, backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages within 72 hours, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

That would be followed by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.

“Hamas is still continuing consultations regarding Trump’s plan… and has informed mediators that the consultations are ongoing and need some time,” the official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.

On Tuesday, Trump gave Hamas “three or four days” to accept his plan, which has been welcomed by world powers, including Arab and Muslim nations.

Mohammad Nazzal, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement Friday that the “plan has points of concern, and we will announce our position on it soon.”

As Hamas mulled Trump’s peace plan this week, a Palestinian source close to the group’s leadership told AFP on Wednesday that the Islamist movement wanted to amend some clauses, including the one on disarmament.

Hamas leaders also want “international guarantees” for a full Israeli withdrawal and that no assassination attempts would be made inside or outside Gaza, the source added.

Another source familiar with the negotiations told AFP that the group was split over Trump’s plan.

Structurally, the group’s leadership is divided between officials based in the Gaza Strip and those abroad, particularly in Qatar.

Much of Hamas’s leadership has also been wiped out in Israeli attacks throughout the war.

The source told AFP that “the first (opinion) supports unconditional approval, as the priority is a ceasefire under Trump’s guarantees, with mediators ensuring Israel implements the plan”.

“The second has serious reservations regarding key clauses… They favour conditional approval with clarifications reflecting Hamas’s and the resistance factions’ demands,” the source added.

Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said “ultimately it’s not just about convincing Hamas leadership in Doha, but also the leadership in Gaza, as well as Hamas members and fighters in Gaza.”

“Additionally, Hamas must then be able to convince other factions in Gaza,” he added.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 66,288 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

Headline

Israeli Forces Strike Gaza Despite Trump’s Ceasefire Call

Published

11 hours ago

October 4, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Saturday that Israel carried out dozens of attacks on Gaza City despite US President Donald Trump’s appeal to end bombardments after Hamas accepted a ceasefire deal.

“It was a very violent night, during which the (Israeli army) carried out dozens of air strikes and artillery shelling on Gaza City and other areas in the Strip, despite President Trump’s call to halt the bombing,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Bassal, whose agency is a rescue force which operates under Hamas authority, added that 20 homes were destroyed in the overnight bombardments.

“The situation is very serious in Gaza City,” Bassal said, adding that his teams were not able to reach all the casualties due to the “presence of tanks and the ongoing bombardment”.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “checking” reports of overnight bombardments on Gaza City.

Gaza City’s Baptist Hospital said in a statement that it received casualties from a strike on a home in Tuffah neighbourhood, including four dead and “several wounded”.

Nasser Hospital in south Gaza’s Khan Yunis said two children were killed and eight people were wounded in a drone strike on a tent in a camp for displaced Gazans.

The peace plan for Gaza, presented by Trump this week and backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages within 72 hours, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas said on Friday it was ready to release hostages held in Gaza under the Trump plan, but wanted negotiations on the details and a say in the future of the Palestinian territory.

AFP

Headline

Prosecutors Seek 11-year Sentence For Diddy, Citing ‘Lack Of Remorse’

Published

1 day ago

October 3, 2025

Editor

Prosecutors urged a federal judge Friday to sentence Sean “Diddy” Combs to more than a decade behind bars for his conviction on two prostitution-related counts, saying the music mogul had shown a lack of remorse.

“This is not a person who has accepted responsibility,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told the New York court at Diddy’s sentencing hearing.

“His remorse was qualified. It’s as though he thinks the law doesn’t apply to him,” Slavik said in arguing for an 11-year prison sentence for the 55-year-old hip-hop innovator. ” “His respect for the law is just lip service.”

Combs’s lawyers have asked the judge for a 14-month sentence, which would effectively be time served.

Slavik said Combs had booked speaking engagements in Miami next week in anticipation of a light sentence, which she called “the height of hubris.”

Judge Arun Subramanian for his part said federal sentencing guidelines suggested a prison term of between six and seven years although he has the latitude to impose more or less.

The judge also noted an apparent lack of remorse, saying Combs has “challenged his factual guilt full-throatedly.”

Combs was expected to address the court at the sentencing hearing after submitting a letter to the judge on Thursday pleading for mercy and saying he had “lost my way.”

Following two months of often searing testimony, jurors in July rejected the most serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering against Combs, sparing him the prospect of life in prison.

Combs’s mother and six of his children were in court on Friday and have submitted letters to the judge in his support.

In his plea to the judge, Combs apologised for his conduct, saying he was “scared to death” to be away from his family and vowing he “will never commit a crime again.”

“I lost my way,” he wrote. “I got lost in my journey. Lost in the drugs and the excess.”

Combs’s former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, asked the judge in a letter of her own to consider “the many lives that Sean Combs has upended with his abuse and control.”

– ‘Humbled and broken’ –

Ventura, the 39-year-old singer known as Cassie, testified for days while heavily pregnant.

She described in wrenching detail physical, emotional and sexual abuse she suffered while in a more than decade-long relationship with Combs.

Ventura and another woman, identified as Jane, said they were coerced into performing so-called “freak-offs”: sexual marathons with hired men that Combs directed and sometimes filmed.

“The entire courtroom watched actual footage of Combs kicking and beating me as I tried to run away from a freak off in 2016,” Ventura wrote.

“People watched this footage dozens of times, seeing my body thrown to the ground, my hands over my head, curled into a fetal position to shield me from the worst blows,” she said, noting she has nightmares and flashbacks “on a regular, everyday basis.”

Ventura said she and her family had left the New York area for fear of “retribution” from Combs if he is released.

The defense didn’t deny Combs’s sexual activity but insisted it was consensual.

They also didn’t deny Combs’s years of violence against both romantic partners as well as employees — but they said it didn’t meet the legal threshold for the grave charges he faced.

Jurors took their side.

The conviction on lesser if still serious counts stemmed from a federal statute that makes it illegal to transport people across state lines for prostitution.

Combs has been incarcerated in Brooklyn for more than a year.

He said his time in prison has left him “reborn.”

“I have been humbled and broken to my core,” Combs wrote.
AFP