The Court of Appeal in Abuja has held that governors and deputy governors elected under the rested 1979 Constitution are not entitled to pension under the 1999 Constitution except where states decide to make such provisions in their individual laws.

The appellate court made the clarification in a judgment on Monday on an appeal filed by a former governor of the old Borno State, the late Alhaji Umar Mohammed Goni, who served between 1979-1983.

The appeal, marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1565/2024 was against the December 18, 2019, judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in Abuja, which rejected Goni’s claims.

Goni had, in his suit before the NICN, marked:NICN/ABJ/140/2019 claimed among others, that he was entitled to receive monthly pension for life and the additional benefits enumerated in Sections 3 (1) and (3) of the Borno State, subsection 3 (i) – (ix) of the Borno State (Grant of pension to Governors and Deputy Governors) Law, 2005 (as amended in 2009).

He had prayed the court to declare that, by the combined reading of Sections 3 (1) and (3) of the Borno State, subsection 3 (i) – (ix) of the Borno State (Grant of pension to Governors and Deputy Governors) Law, 2005 (as amended in 2009) and Section 312 (2) of the 1999 Constitution as well as Section 6 of the Interpretation Act Cap 123, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, he was entitled to monthly pension for life.

In its judgment on Monday, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal was unanimous in dismissing Goni’s appeal and affirming the judgment of the NICN delivered by Justice Edith Agbakoba.

Agbakoba had held among others, that the Borno State (Grant of Pension to Governors and Deputy Governors) Law, 2005 (as amended in 2009) had no retrospective provision covering governors and deputy governors who were not elected in accordance to any law in force immediately before the coming into force of the 1999 Constitution.

Justice Mohammed Danjuma, who read the lead judgment of the Court of Appeal on Monday, said the 1979 Constitution, under which Goni served, ceased to exist since the military government suspended it in 1983, thereby ending the old order.

Justice Danjuma held that the 1999 Constitution, which came into effect on May 29, 1999 ushered in a new order.

He further held that if the Borno State pension law intended to accommodate Goni and others who served under the 1979 Constitution, it would have indicated so.

The judge noted that Goni served in the old Borno State, which is now the present Borno and Yobe State, adding that the law would have said those elected in the old Borno State should be accommodated if the state government wanted Goni and others to be so captured.

He said: “The appellant was a governor of the defunct Borno State, under the 1979 constitution, not a governor under the 1999 Constitution or immediately before or after the 1999 Constitution.”

Justice Danjuma held that the NICN was right to have held that Borno State (Grant of Pension to Governors and Deputy Governors) Law, 2005 (as amended in 2009) did not cover Goni.

He proceeded to dismiss the appeal.

Earlier in the judgment, Justice Danjuma upheld the objection raised against the appeal by the sole respondent, the Borno State Government, on various grounds and struck it out

He agreed with the appellant that the appeal can survive Goni, who died before the appeal could be determined, but faulted the failure of his lawyer to file a motion for the substitution of the deceased appellant with any other appropriate person.

Justice Danjuma upheld the argument by the respondent that the appeal was incompetent because it was filed out of time without the appellant obtaining the court’s permission for extension of time to appeal out of time.

He noted that while the judgment of the NICN was delivered on December 18, 2019 the appellant filed his notice of appeal on November 13, 2024 and held that an appeal filed out of time is incompetent. (The Nation)

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