Ebonyi government confirms payment of 30% arrears to pensioners

chika ebuzor

September 8, 2017 7:00 PM

Contrary to reports, the pensioners claim that they had been paid only 20 per cent of the arrears.

The Ebonyi Government has confirmed the payment of 30 per cent of pension arrears to state pensioners who are demanding 100 per cent payment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pensioners were alleging that they had been paid only 20 per cent of the arrears.

This was one of the contending issues in the recent protest in Abakaliki.

Dr Dennis Ekumankama, the State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the issue was not a speculation.

According to him, the decision to raise the payment up to 30 per cent was reached at the last executive council meeting of the state presided over by the state governor.

“Government will increase the percentage of payment as more funds accrue and we advise pensioners to receive the decision in good faith.

“Clamouring for 100 per cent payment is wrong because it entails paying when the fund is received in bulk or offsetting the arrears on year-by year-basis.

“The arrears date back to 2009 which was not accumulated by the present government and if we pay 2009 alone for example, what will we tell others who fall within 2010–2017.

“The pensioners are hungry and have been expecting the money for long with the governor declaring that he will pay the pensioners all their due payments,” he said.

The commissioner said that the state was not owing pensioners and those saying that they have not been paid are those who have not been verified.

“We cannot pay the money to anybody who claims to be a pensioner because there are people who are not supposed to be paid that are receiving pensions.

“We want to block all leakages involved in illegal payment of pensions and that is why for instance, we are not in a hurry to pay gratuities,” he said.

He said that the state received over N12 billion as its share of the Paris Fund refund, noting that it ranked second to the last among the states that collected the refund.

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“We received eight billion naira in the first tranche and four billion naira in the second and the funds have been dedicated for the settlement of salaries, pensions and gratuities arrears,” he said.

The commissioner said that the public needed to be educated on true definition of the Paris Club refund to clear the wrong insinuations associated with it.

“People should be informed that the Paris Club refund is the refund of illegal deductions from the local and international loans obtained by states,” he said.

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