The Benue State Coalition of Aggrieved Pensioners has petitioned the state government to direct the payment of their unpaid pensions and gratuities.
The union made this appeal in a rejoinder signed by Akosu Orban, the union’s Chairman, and Mac Mtsur, the union’s Secretary, and made accessible in Makurdi yesterday.
The pensioners recently protested the non-payment of over 32 and 34 benefits owing to state and local council retirees, despite the fact that they had lost over 500 members due to the economic downturn.
The state administration, on the other hand, claimed to have reached an arrangement with the leaders of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), who are members of the Local Government Joint Account, and that it had been paying N700 million to pensioners in the state on a monthly basis.
Nathaniel Ikyur, the Governor’s Acting Press Secretary, claimed that N300 million was paid to local council pensioners and N400 million to state pensioners.
“This way of payment has been in operation for the previous six months, and the government plans to keep it in place until the payment system can be stabilized,” he added.
In a statement, the aggrieved retirees expressed their dissatisfaction with the governor’s assertion that N700 million will be delivered by the state government monthly, despite the fact that the number of months owing to them continued to rise.
Only six months of the 33 months of pension owed to retirees were inherited from the previous administration, according to the forum’s chairman.
