Worried by the plight of pensioners in Niger State, a group, under the auspices of Concerned Citizens, has petitioned the state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, to, as a matter of urgency, investigate what the group called “large scale financial scam” in the state pension board.
In its petition, the group expressed worries that despite the billions of Naira released to the board for regular payment of retirees’ pension and gratuity, the plight of the pensioners could better be imagined than experienced.
In a strongly worded two-page petition letter addressed to the Governor, dated December 11, 2019 and signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Awaisu Guwahati Kuta, and Secretary, Adamu Lambata, and made available to journalists in Minna, the group urged Bello to immediately order a full investigation into the state pension board.
According to the group: “We have taken this decision to intimate you because we are aware of your concern for the plight of our retirees and the act of sabotage by the implementing agency.
“We wish to advice that you immediately order full investigations into the activities of Niger state Pensions Board for the past four years.”
The group reminded the governor that the non payment of gratuity and pension arrears have created a bad image for the administration despite its good intentions towards pensioners in the state.
It said: “There is no doubt that you have approved and released large sums of money running into billions for payment of gratuity and pension arrears and the refunds of the 7.5 per cent contribution for the past four years.
“This you magnanimously did to ease the sufferings of our retirees who have served this state for 35 years. We are very worried that some of these senior citizens are today still languishing in abject poverty because of non payment of their entitlement.”
When contacted, the Director General of the state Pension Board, Alhaji Mohammed Tinau, described the petition as baseless, saying the board has lived up to expectations as far as the payment of pension is concerned in the state.
Tinau however pointed out that the petition is targeted at embarrassing the governor and not the pension boards.
He said: “May be it is the governor they want to embarrass.
“This thing you are telling me now has even gone to the governor.
“We have it with the Department of State Services.
“We have it with everybody.”
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