Pensioners threaten North East govt over N61bn unpaid benefits

►The Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, in the six North-East  states of the country, has decried alleged refusal of governments in the zone to pay arrears of entitlements amounting to a whopping N61bilion and threatened to call members out for mass protests in the six states.

►The states are Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe.
Investigations by Pension & You, revealed that some of the arrears date back to the creation of these states.

Bauchi and Adamawa for example, were created in 1976 and since then, it was gathered that every administration left arrears of pensions unpaid.

Pension & You was informed that Bauchi has arrears of about N12billion.

According to investigation, successive governments have not only refused to clear the arrears, but have compounded them.

However, at a joint briefing in Bauchi, Zonal Vice President, North East NUP Alhaji Mohammed Inuwa, and the Bauchi State NUP Chairman, Habu Gar, lamented that members had been passing through severe hardship and could no longer take care of their needs and meet obligations to their families.

According to Inuwa, “We are worried over non-payment of heavy backlogs of gratuities. We are suffering neglect in our own states after serving the states and the federation. It is a pity, we do not have money to pay school fees for our children among other commitments.”

Corroborating, Chairman Bauchi State NUP, Habu Gar , said the present administration in the state had refused to pay the backlog of arrears even after the review of pension and gratuity payment in the state, despite promises to pay.”

According to him, the government had failed to pay local government pensioners their benefits including gratuities since two months, lamenting that many pensioners had died without enjoying their benefits.

The chairman gave the government till end of December to settle the arrears, adding that retirees would take to the streets for a protest after the ultimatum.

He called on the state governor to personally intervene and ensure immediate payment of their gratuities and pensions in the state, saying “as a body, we are aware that the backlog of pensions, gratuities was inherited by the present administration, but we believe that government is a continuous process and since Governor Isa Yuguda is on a restoration mission, we plead that the governor should look into the plight of the pensioners.”