By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Governor Bala Mohammed has said that the Bauchi State Government would collaborate with the Federal Government agencies such as Pencom to leverage on soft loans to be able to defray all the gratuities owed public service retirees in the state.
The governor said that this feat could successfully be achieved with the establishment of Bauchi State and Local Government Contributory Pensions Law, 2022 which he assented to on Friday as one of the 12 laws earlier passed by the State House of Assembly.
Assenting to the Contributory Pensions Law, the governor said that it has been enacted to replace the Define Pensions Benefit Scheme, which he argued, has been responsible for the lack or delayed payment of pensions and gratuities to beneficiaries over three past successive governments in the state.
“As you all know, the Define Benefits Pension Scheme has been responsible for the lack of pensions and gratuities in the state public service over the years, especially gratuities which we have over N20 billion in arrears over the past three administrations in the state
He said the objective of the contributory pensions scheme would among other benefits ensure that any public servant who worked in the public service or who participated in the scheme receive his or her benefits as at when due at the time of exit.
“We are also going to collaborate with federal government agencies to Pencom to leverage on soft loan to be able to defray all the gratuities owed under the law”, he assured, as it was reliably learnt that the state is going to raise the sum of about N30 billion from Pencom for this purpose.
Senator Bala Mohammed explained that seven of the twelves laws assented to have been enacted to provide for the establishment of new government agencies while five have repealed extent laws in place of which new laws have been enacted, and one is an amendment to an extent law.
“As you all know government agencies needs legal framework for backing to effectively functions as legal entities. Enactment of laws by the Legislature is therefore a necessary constitutional requirement for the government to express such wills through its agencies”.
Also assented to is the Law for the establishment of Bauchi State Vigilante and Youths Empowerment, 2022 which objectives included exploring opportunities in job creation and providing training for youths in skills acquisition that would enable them to be gainfully employed and self-reliance.
“Youths vanguard to be engaged by the agency will assist conventional securities agencies in combating crimes in the society. To that end, we are collaborating with the security agencies to employ between 2, 000 to 10, 000 within the period of the full blossom of this agency”.
According to him, with this new security drive, the Local Governments and people in the local areas would be protected by these vigilantes that would work within the law and rule s of engagements so that Bauchi would be able to complement the contributions of the agencies to the provision of security in the state.
Senator Bala Mohammed similarly assented to the law to repeal the Bauchi State Urban Planning and Development, 2012 to enact the Bauchi State Physical Planning and Development Control Board, 2022.
The objectives of the law, he said, are essentials to show and improve physical planning and development control where the state is going to have some enforcements to ensure some of the obscene sites on the roads and corridors are removed in a matter that would make the state cities safe, secure and serene.
