The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has ruled that governors and deputy governors who served under the 1979 Constitution are not automatically entitled to pensions under the 1999 Constitution, unless such provisions are explicitly made in state laws.
The judgment was delivered on Monday by a three-member panel in an appeal filed by the late former Governor of the old Borno State, Alhaji Umar Mohammed Goni, who served between 1979 and 1983.
Goni had sought to be granted lifetime pension and other entitlements under the Borno State Governors and Deputy Governors (Pension) Law of 2005, as amended in 2009. However, both the National Industrial Court and the Court of Appeal rejected his claims.
In its ruling, the appellate court held that the 1979 Constitution ceased to exist following its suspension in 1983, and therefore could not serve as a basis for pension rights under a later constitutional framework.
The court further stated that the pension law in question did not have retrospective effect to cover officials who served under the defunct constitutional arrangement. It added that if the law intended to include such former officeholders, it would have explicitly stated so.
Justice Mohammed Danjuma, who delivered the lead judgment, noted that the appellant served in the defunct Borno State before its division into present-day Borno and Yobe States, and therefore fell outside the scope of the 2005 pension law.
The court also struck out the appeal on procedural grounds, holding that it was filed out of time without proper extension of time. It further observed that no formal application was made to substitute the appellant after his death before the matter was determined.
With this decision, the Court of Appeal affirmed the earlier ruling of the National Industrial Court, effectively ending the claim for pension entitlement.
