THE Ondo State governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, on Tuesday, assured pensioners in the State that his administration would start clearing accumulated gratuities of retired workers and arrears of pensions from January, next year.
Akeredolu who stated this in Akure, Ondo state capital, during this year National Pensioners’ Day Celebration with a theme: “Pension Without Tension, Without Tears: A Task That Must Be Accomplished By The Union In The Years Ahead.”
Akeredolu who was represented by his Special Adviser on Labour matters, Alaba Isijola, said all necessary machineries were being put in place to ensure that pensioners in the state receive their pension and gratuities regularly.
He noted that majority of workers who retires since 2011 have not been paid their gratuities with local government and state pensioners being owed three months one-month pension respectively.
Akeredolu said: “We inherited seven months pension arrears from the previous administration, but as at today we have cleared almost everything.
“On the gratuities, the government has mapped out strategies of paying affected pensioners as from January (2019). So be rest assured that Mr governor will not promise what he cannot do. His love for workers and our fathers- retirees is unequalled.”
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The governor said his government would continue to give priority to the welfare of pensioners saying the state government just approved three of the requests of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in the State.
The state chairman of the Nigeria Union ofPensionerss (NUP), Chief Raphael Adetuwo, called President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors to implement an upward review of their pension to enable them to cope with economic reality in the country as stipulated in a section of the 1999 constitution.
Adetuwo noted that continuous violation of section 173 subsection 3 and 210 (3) of the Constitution by the government had exposed many retirees to untold hardship as some of them collect ridiculous pension like two to five thousand naira monthly.
He said: “Besides, it is inhumane that there are still some pensioners whose monthly pension is less than N5, 000 while many receive over N500, 000 monthly.”
He lamented that thirty percent pension increase approved in 2014 was yet to been implemented by both the federal and state governments.
The NUP chairman however, commended governor Akeredolu, over the regular payment of pension since he assumed office, urging him to offset accumulated gratuities of many pensioners and harmonised discrepancies in monthly pension of retirees.
“Non-harmonisation of pension is another painful issue to pensioners. A grade one principal of the school who retired in 1986 received N40,000 per month while his counterpart who retired in 2013 received N250,000 monthly.
“It is our belief that if there is a minimum wage, there must also be a minimum pension and people who are retired on the same post and the same grade level ought to be earning the same monthly pension no matter the number of years separating their time or date of retirement,” he said
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