AKWA Ibom State pensioners have decried non-payment of their pensions and gratuities despite recent bailouts and Paris Clubs refunds, pleading with the state government to pay their entitlements. It was gathered that from August 2015 till January 2017, retired civil servants have not been paid their gratuity and pension arrears, due to perceived embargo on the payment of gratuities and pensions by the state government.

One of the pensioners claimed that from January 2017 till date, the total amount of gratuity and pension arrears were N11billion, arguing that, if the state was given N14.5billion in December last year from the Paris Club refunds by the federal government, the state government should have comfortably defrayed the arrears to make life easy for the pensioners, who had served the country meritoriously for 35 years.

Workers payroll

“Those whose pensions have been paid up to date are persons who retired recently due to the implementation of straight transfer procedure by the Head of Service (HoS), Mrs Ekereobong Akpan, where workers payroll is transmitted to pensions payroll without any delay,” adding that, workers who retired between 2015/16 are being owed gratuities and pension arrears.

According to him, “Those who retired from service in 2013-2014 and could not receive their blue papers are also being owed gratuities and pensions, while the arrears it was gathered vary.” He appealed to the federal government to enforce its earlier directive to states, on the usage of Paris Club refunds for the payment of gratuity and pension arrears to pensioners.

However, investigation by Vanguard revealed that, payment of pension and gratuity is becoming more complex, arising from the existence of three categories of government pensioners (The Civil, Primary School Teachers and the Local Government Pensioners). According to the Akwa Ibom State Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, Obong Comas M. Essien, each of these groups belongs to a particular arm of government which caters for their welfare needs and interest. He said before 1990, the state government was solely responsible for the civil pensioners which comprised the primary school teachers.

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