Pensioners accuse Kwara govt of N450m illegal deduction from LG allocation

The Kwara State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners has said that it has instituted a court case against the state government over an alleged deduction of the sum of N450million from the monthly allocation of the 16 Local Government Area councils in the state.
The Chairman of the Publicity Committee of the union, Chief Funsho Olaniyan, in a chat with our correspondent, described the alleged monthly deduction as an illegal act, which hampered the development of government at the grassroots.
He said some ministries and agencies in the state connived to deduct the money, monthly, from the Kwara State Local Government Joint Account Allocation.
“The monthly deduction is being used for servicing the payment of salaries of Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff in the Junior Secondary Schools (JSS 1-3) in the State,” he said.
The Secretary of the association, Alhaji Ameen Ahmed, described the state government’s action as, “contrary to the dictate of the 1999 Constitution, which has apportioned the responsibility of maintaining Secondary Schools Education to all states of the Federation.”
He said the monthly deductions had weakened the allocation of the councils and could not meet the needs of the stakeholders of local government, who were the rightful owners of the fund.
“This ugly scenario brought into play the state government’s resolve for paying amputated percentage monthly pension to local government pensioners in our state,” he said.
The pensioners, however, said the situation had led to high death rate among them across the 16 local government areas since April 2015.
They also said the suit was praying the court to stop the state government from illegal diversion of funds from the LG-JAAC.
The union said the court action was to allow emergence of rejuvenated and conducive financial status for pensioners’ happy living in the state.