By; VITALIS UGOH, Calabar
In line with the workers-friendly disposition of the state governor, Senator Ben Ayade, the Cross River State Government, has commenced the payment of gratuities to some retirees in the state.
This is even as the state is up to date regarding the payment of pensions to its retirees.
There were lots of excitement as pensioners of 2013 set got their cheques from the Accountant General Office in Calabar.
Our correspondent gathered that more pensioners were expected to receive their cheques before the end of this week.
Earlier the Association of Cross River State Local Government Pensioners has vowed to shut down government activities within the next one month if the state government refuses to defray their entitlements.
This will be achieved as its entire 5, 600 members would be mobilises to occupy and shut down Calabar, the state capital until their demands were met
The ultimatum was given by the chairman of the Association, Comrade Bassey Okosin while addressing newsmen in Calabar yesterday.
He stated that the pension board if properly managed, could properly manage itself without assistance from the “Paris Club Refunds, bailouts or any other such funds”.
Okosin said over N9 billion is being owed as pensions and gratuity since 2007.
“We will mobilize all our 5, 600 members from the 18 local government of the state. We will sleep in the governor’s office, in the house of assembly. We will live with the governor, the Speaker, the ministries, departments and all the relevant agencies until they give us our money so we can go. We have taken a decision to pack our loads to live in all the offices that are responsible for the payment of these entitlements until further notice”.
“The elderly men and women were deprived their pension for a period ranging from two to six months as a result of that exercise. Every documentation/verification of those names have been done for over a year now but nobody appeared to bother about it. This is different from arrears of pension generated by administrative bottleneck, where a person is retired and the process of computing entitlement will linger for between 6 months to two years. When eventually it is ready for payment. Only the current month is paid, while the rest is classified as outstanding arrears”.
“As at today, over #9 billion is outstanding in respect of arrears of pension and gratuity covering the period 2007 to 2018 in favour of local government pensioners. They have been denied these entitlement on account of lack of funds, the bailout fund and Paris Club Refund we are told those not include local government pensioners and no reason has been advanced for this, but we still expect that the right thing will be done alleviate the suffering of our members”.
Ayade had been consistent in insisting that workers who retired after contributing to the economic well-being of the state were paid their entitlements to guarantee their minimum comfort.
