James Sowole in Abeokuta
Pensioners in Ogun State yesterday appealed to the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun, to increase the N500 million quarterly gratuity payment to N2 billion to offset the N64.4 billion outstanding gratuities.
The pensioners said the increase would go a long way in offsetting the backlog of unpaid gratuities.
The senior citizens under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Ogun State chapter, made the appeal while addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital.
The Chairman of NUP, Waidi Oloyede, who spoke on behalf of the pensioners, described the Contributory Pensions Scheme Review and Consequential Pensions Adjustment Committee set up to address the demands of workers and pensioners in the state as “a ruse and a calculated ploy to frustrate our legitimate demands, discredit the NUP leadership and also build mistrust in the rank and file of our union.”
The pensioners berated the governor over his alleged failure to implement the agreements signed with them in the Memorandum of Action (MOA) over four months ago.
According to Oloyede, the government had agreed to implement the consequential adjustment of pensions as approved by the federal government in 2019 which mandated statutory increase in pension, lamenting that some pensioners still earn the paltry sum of N5,000 monthly as pension.
He said the government also agreed to increase the quarterly release of N500million gratuities and ensure prompt payment of pension.
Oloyede also lamented the delay in the release of the fourth quarter release of
2022 gratuity.
The pensioners faulted the claim of the Abiodun-led administration of paying N3.6billion out of the inherited outstanding N68billion for the past three and a half years, insisting that the money “is not enough to defray gratuities of retirees from June 2019 to date being the tenure of the Abiodun administration.”
Oloyede said it was regrettable that the governor had turned deaf ears to the cries of the pensioners, saying the persistent late payments of pensions by the Abiodun-led administration had worsened the plights of pensioners.
“No one deprives the elderly of their ‘walking sticks’ without its attendant repercussions. We are hereby calling on the Ogun State Government led by Prince Dapo Abiodun to have a change of heart in the way the elderly that have toiled hard in their hay-days to keep the state on a sound footing are now being treated.
“There is sincere need for the government to regularly pay substantial amount to offset the backlog of gratuities. While the pensioners eagerly await required consequential increase in pensions to meet with the present economic situations of the country as well as regular payment of pensions by the 25th of each month as of previous administrations,” he said.
