Ogun pensioners protest against non-payment of N68b gratuity

Pensioners in Ogun State have renewed their appeal on the state Government to increase the monthly pensions stipends and gratuities to meet current economic realities.

The pensioners also demanded the payment of their 10 years outstanding gratuity, which they put at N68 billion.

Defying the morning showers on Wednesday, the aged pensioners marched to the Governor’s office in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, but were denied entry.

The pensioners, under the aegis of Local Government Pensioners Association of Nigeria (LOGPAN), were armed with placards demanding their gratuities’

The placards read; “Gratuities are on sales to pensioners”, “Governor Dapo Abiodun honour your father and treat Pensioners well”.
“Governor Abiodun, we don’t deserve this worst humiliation”, and others.

The State Chairman of LOGPAN, Sikiru Ayilara, who addressed journalists at the venue of the protest, lamented that some of the retirees still earn N3,000 as monthly pension.

Ayilara described the quarterly payment of N500 million by the governor, which according to him, would take 34 years to clear all the gratuities, as “a wicked act” and unacceptable.

He urged the review of the policy by voting N1 billion monthly instead of N500 million quarterly.

According to him, the association had written 13 letters to the governor seeking his audience to address their demands, “but the governor has remained recalcitrant and unyielding to their demands.”

He listed some of their demands to include non-payment of gratuities, lateness in pensions payment, non-increase in the monthly pensions and discrimination against members of the association by the government.

He insisted that it is illegal for the state government to be paying their pensions through the Ministry of Finance instead of the Bureau of Local Government Pensions.

BUT responding, the SSG appealed to the retirees to be more patient with the government, saying: “The government is currently experiencing hard times.”

He assured that the government would look into their demands.