Laleye Dipo in Minna
Pensioners in Niger State Tuesday protested the non-payment of their pensions and gratuities.
They took their protest to the Government House, as well as the office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG).
The protesters, in their numbers, had blocked both the Government House gates and the entrance to the office of the SSG, making movement in and out of the offices impossible.
They carried placards some of which have inscriptions such as “Payment of pension in percentages not acceptable”, “Pay Us our gratuity now”, “Pensioners lives matter”, “No gratuity no pension, no vote in 2023” and “We shall occupy Government House Minna until the Governor pay us our benefits”.
The spokesman of the pensioners, Mr. Ibrahim Mahmud, while appealing to the SSG, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Matane, who had come to give reasons for the non-payment of their pensions and gratuities,
said many of them had lost their lives as a result of lack of funds to offset medical bills.
Mahmud stated that government has been insensitive to their plights, insisting that: “We have been abandoned despite several bailouts and Paris Club funds the state received from the federal government.
“The state has received Paris Club fund and bailout funds and we did not benefit. You have made beautiful submissions and you expect us to go home and wait, how long shall we wait?”
Responding to their demands, the SSG, Matane, said one of the reasons for the non-payment is the discovery of anomalies in both the state and local government pension sectors which the government has been trying to resolve since 2015.
He stated that government has also discovered ghost pensioners on the state’s payrolls.
According to the SSG, “There are pensioners who are underpaid and those that are receiving more than what they supposed to collect.
“There are pensioners who are collecting more than they are supposed to. There are those who have retired but haven’t collected pension and there is non-availability of adequate data of pensioners at the local government level.
“The government is not deliberately hurting pensioners, it is doing its best within its available resources. If there is any surplus money, the government will put it into payment of gratuities.”
He appealed to the retirees to give the government time, promising that “before the end of this month, we will address all issues relating to pensions and gratuities of state and local government ensions”.
They however dispersed after the SSG’s address.
