BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
In his efforts at clearing outstanding arrears of active and retired workers, Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, on Thursday, presented bond certificates worth N2.1 billion to retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The beneficiaries cut across pensioners that left service at the state and Local Government levels.
Addressing the pensioners in Osogbo after the presentation of the bond certificates, Adeleke pointed out that his administration had taken another critical step to correct errors of the past.
“When I was campaigning for the governorship, It was a deliberate decision to put workers’ welfare as number one on my governance agenda. I know the level of inhuman treatment our workers and pensioners have been subjected to. I had a vow that if elected, never must our pensioners be so badly treated again.
“Despite the weak funding base of the state, we launched out in pursuance of our electoral pledge. Within a very tight financial regime, we are addressing outstanding pension and salary debt. We are gradually clearing outstanding arrears owed workers, in and out of service.
“The template for payment that our government issued early this year is still very much in force. We are following it religiously. Even when paucity of funds threatens implementation, I insisted we must act to satisfy our senior citizens who are suffering in retirement,” he said.
Adeleke, while reassuring the senior citizens that he would never play politics with their welfare, stated, “The economic mess we met on ground was deeper than anybody can imagine. The state purse was almost in the red with very harsh deductions and repayment.”
Giving a breakdown of how his administration has fared in clearing outstanding arrears of pensioners in the Local Government, Adeleke said, “Between November, 2022 and before today’s programme, a sum of N7,329,225,294.74 had been released for payment of pensions, gratuity, and accrued rights benefits for local government and primary school retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme
“Today, bond certificates worth N1,242,927,554.31 will be released to the same set of workers. Thus, from the inception of the administration to date, a total of N8,572,152,849.05 has been released.”
At the state level, the governor said, “Between November, 2022 and before today’s programme, a sum of N4,088,006,280.43 had been released for payment of gratuity and accrued rights benefits of retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, secondary and tertiary institutions. This is apart from about N3.6bn committed to the payment of pension from December, 2022 to date.
“For retirees at the state level under the Contributory Pension Scheme, bond certificates worth N836,823,243.00 are to be distributed to them today. Thus, the commitment of government to the payment of gratuity and accrued rights benefits of retirees at the state level under the CPS to date is N4,924,829,243.00.”
“The total we are handing out today is N2.1 billion,” he added.
