Laleye Dipo in Minna
The Niger State government has given reasons for the delay in the payment of pensions and gratuities to its retirees.
The government said one of the reasons was the discovery of anomalies in both the state and local government pension sectors which he said the government had been trying to resolve since 2015.
The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Matane, who gave the reason added that government had also discovered ghost pensioners on its payrolls, adding that, “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, Matane said on Tuesday when he addressed pensioners who protested the non-payment of their pensions and gratuities.”
He told the protesters that, “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.”
The government scribe appealed to the retirees to give the government time, promising that, “before the end of this month, we will address all issues related to pensions and gratuities of state and local government pensions.”
Spokesman of the pensioners, Mr. Ibrahim Mahmud, said many of them had lost their lives as a result of lack of funds to offset medical bills.
Mahmud claimed that government had 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? he asked.
The protesters in their numbers had blocked both the government house gates and the entry to the office of the Secretary to the Government making movement in and out of the offices impossible.
They carried placards some of which had inscriptions such as, “payment of pension in percentages not acceptable” “pay Us our gratuity now” and “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.”
They however dispersed after the address by the Secretary to the Government.
