Kebbi finds three pupils’ names on pensioners’ list By Charles Coffie-Gyamfi (Abeokuta) and Ahmed Idris

Pension

Federal pensioners in Ogun protest against 14-month unpaid entitlements
Kebbi State government has discovered names of three Primary Three pupils in its pensioners’ list.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Umar Babale Yauri, who made the disclosure yesterday in Birnin Kebbi, said the pupils were among those claiming to collect pensions.
He pledged that government would weed out ghost pensioners and workers for genuine beneficiaries to get their entitlements.

“We found a lot of irregularities in the pensions board and fake names claiming to collect pensions in the state,” he remarked. He added that the government had set aside billions of naira for the payment of pensioners.
The SSG also stated that the current administration had strategised against infiltration, adding that the state had partnered with UNICEF to register Almajiri schools to expedite re-enrolment in conventional ones.
In another development, federal pensioners in Ogun State yesterday protested against their alleged unpaid 14-month gratuities and pensions.
They also accused the government of not paying the “desired and deserved” attention to their welfare. They called on the Labour movement and government at all levels to set “a day or a week for pensioners”.
The placard-carrying pensioners were those who retired from the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Neuropsychiatric Hospital as well as other federal agencies and establishments.
Their leader, Mr. Kayode da-Silva, who spoke at a press conference at the state secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Iwe-Iroyin, Abeokuta, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on the situation.
Da-silva noted that the contributing pensions scheme stipulated that their gratuities should be paid three months after their retirement. But he lamented that the Federal Government and National Pensions Commission had not offered credible and satisfactory reasons for the protracted delay.
He said: “Only God knows how many of the pensioners have died on account of this undue and undeserved delay. A number of us suffer from age-related ailments and must be on drug daily.
“Pensioners should not be made scapegoats for all the shortcomings of Federal Government agencies and personnel.”
He, therefore, urged Buhari to order the immediate payment of their pensions by (PENCOM).

Culled from Guardian