Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun has once again criticized the administration of his predecessor and political adversary, Ibikunle Amosun.
This time, the criticism was based on the payment of gratuity.
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Abiodun, while addressing pensioners at an interactive session held at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta on Monday, said Amosun’s administration never paid any gratuity from 2012 to 2019.
The governor informed them that his administration met arrears of over N80b and had since developed ways of defraying it.
The Governor promised;
When we came in, we met pension arrears of over N80b. We started paying N500m at a time. We later increased it to N600m monthly. If the previous government had been paying, we would not be where we are today.
I am expecting about N280bn from the federal government being the money we spent constructing federal roads. I can assure you that as soon as I get that money, I will pay between N10 and N18b as pensions and gratuities.
Abiodun, however, announced an increment of N15,000 for pensioners who were previously collecting N5,000 monthly pensions, wondering how people would survive with such a paltry amount of money at the present difficult time.
He added that his administration had devised various ways including providing needed infrastructure, security, and enabling environment for more Investments aimed at increasing the Internally Generated Revenue of the state.
While noting that his administration was not unmindful of the plight of the senior citizens, the governor said a special arrangement had been made by the state government to take care of pensioners who need urgent medical treatment.
He, therefore, pleaded for patience and understanding as the government would be making efforts to attend to their issues, pledging to have such interactive sessions twice a year.
Speaking earlier, the State Chairman, of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Alhaji Waheed Oloyede, had urged the state government to increase the monthly pension of those still collecting N5,000, just as the N600m quarterly payment for pension was inadequate to pay gratuities.
