Saraki offers his severance package to Leah Sharibu’s family

The former President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, at the end of the Eight National Assembly directed that the National Assembly Management to distribute his Severance Allowance  to families of three victims of the insurgency in North East, Nigeria, where Boko Haram terrorists have been tormenting the people, including children of late Senators who desire financial support. Saraki also set up National Assembly humanitarian Trust Fund to provide financial support for family members of deceased lawmakers in the country.

The former Senate President in a statement in Abuja indicated that the Severance Allowance should be used to support the families of Leah Sharibu, who is being held captive by Boko Haram insurgents after she and other girls were abducted from a Girls Science Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe State, and two humanitarian workers abducted and subsequently murdered by the insurgents, Hussaini Ahmed Khoisan and Hauwa Liman.

National Daily learned that other beneficiaries from the Saraki fund include children of late members of the Eight Senate who may require financial assistance in furtherance of their education as a Trust Fund is to be established by the management of the National Assembly for the purpose.

The former Senate President explained that his decision to devote 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.

Saraki highlighted that 20 per cent of the severance allowance is to be donated to the family of Leah Sharibu while 20 per cent is to be paid to the family of Hauwa Liman, the aid worker brutally murdered by Boko Haram after she was captured.

Another 20 per cent 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 per cent 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.

“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,” Saraki declared.