Union says govt owes pensioners N14.9bn in gratuities

Alhaji Hassan Abubakar, Chairman, Taraba Union of Pensioners, says the state government is owing members of the union gratuities amounting to N14. 9 billion.

Abubakar told the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN ) in Jalingo on Monday that the government owed its pensioners over N9 billion while it owed local governments’ pensioners N5.9 billion.

He said, though, the payment of pension to the state pensioners was up to date, the government owed local government pensioners between two to six months due to several cases of omission.

The chairman said out of the total 7,163 pensioners in the state, 575 recently captured as local governments’ pensioners had not been paid pensions for over five years.

Abubakar said the total pension liabilities for the affected persons stood at the sum of N28 million as at October 2016.

He identified non-review of statutory pensions after five years or during salary review, the lack of harmonisation of pensions after salary review as some of the challenges facing the pensioners.

Abubakar said that other challenges included the non-implementation of the 33 percent increment in pensions as required by Salaries and Wages Commission and the failure of the state to key into the Pension Trust Fund.

The chairman suggested that the National Assembly should approve N25,000 as pension for all retirees, saying that the measure would address the challenges occasioned by pension reviews.