Enugu State civil service retirees have not received their gratuity since September 2010, despite regular pension payments. Parastatal workers face the toughest situation, with no gratuity or pension payments since 2021.
The State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Mr Ikechukwu Ekere, disclosed that the stress of physical verification has led to the death of many retirees recently.
“The pensioners in Enugu State are not finding things easier at all. We are dying especially those in primary schools, local governments and parastatals. The pensioners in local government and primary schools are being owed as of today 26 months’ arrears of pension and they’re being owed from 2006 to date gratuity,” said Ekere.
He explained that when Governor Peter Mbah’s administration set up a committee to look into the non-payment of pensions and gratuity, they felt a sense of comfort.
Ekere regretted that nothing has happened about four months after the committee submitted its report to the governor.
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He said, “He (Governor Peter Mbah) set up a committee to verify and find out the authentic people who are pensioners in the local governments and primary schools, which has been done.
“The promise that was given is that immediately after the verification exercise, those that have been identified as authentic pensioners should be paid. For the past three months or four months they have cleared 7,109 pensioners as those who are verified to be authentic pensioners.
“But as I am talking to you, government had paid them August and September but out of that 7109 that have been verified almost 300 of them have not even received that of August let alone September. I have been asking the government, ‘Are they going to be reverified again?’ They said it is a consultant that is handling the whole thing.
“These people are dying. A father is a local government staff member and he is a pensioner and the wife is a primary school teacher and is a pensioner and they have not been paid their pensions. One has not been paid for the past 26 months. What is the fate of that family and how much is in this pension?
“And the issue of parastatals, they were first of all decided in February 2021 to be precise and since that time till now – ESBS, Daily Star, Library, Rural Electrification, all the parastatals in the state have not been paid.
“The governor said he wants to capture all of them into a central paying system so that it should not be subversion again. They also have been captured and verified. I have begged the government pay these people even if it is two months since 2021. Yes, those in core civil service apart from their gratuity which was last paid 2010 they have been receiving their monthly pension.
“But we have been clamoring again even the other one you are paying check, the least paid pensioners in Enugu State is paid N471, not even up to N1,000, and because of what, they have not been harmonized since 2000 that harmonization started.
“We have had harmonization of 6 percent, 25 percent, 12 percent, 53 percent, plus the consequential adjustment of N30,000 and that has not been done in Enugu State. Although, that one is not only in Enugu State because out of the 36 states of the federation, it is only 11 states that have harmonized. As for neighbouring states here, some are N500, some N600 but must we wait till other states do their own?”
He lamented how senior citizens are subjected to stress in the name of verification.
He said, “If the person brings ID card for that online verification, clear the person, the person is alive.
“But subjecting them that you must go and bring your pension authority some of them doesn’t know where they kept their pension authority again.
“Some of them have dementia even their children will be asking them ‘Daddy or Mummy, where are these your documents’ they will be looking at them. If you visit us where we are doing verification you will see some of them being carried in tricycle, being carried in wheelbarrow, being subjected to all these things and many of them travel from Uzo-Uwani, Enugu- Ezike in Igboeze North, Aninri all these remote places to come for this verification. We have lost many of them during this verification exercise.
“A case in point is the one at Udi from Awgu after the verification exercise, the children came looking for their father and we found him at Upper Iweka at Onitsha Overhead bridge in Anambra State. The man’s documents were scattered everywhere. And if you queue and you are not verified, they will tell you come back the following day.
“It will instantly increase their high blood pressure. What we are begging the governor to do is to see that those people that have been verified should be paid. For instance, last time, they were saying they found out 2640 pensioners in primary schools and local governments that were ghost pensioners.
“I said know that it is not true because they have not done mop up for them, definitely there must be but not as many as that. Many of them have not even received their codes so you can’t say they are ghost pensioners and this happened during the last administration.”