Osun state governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke on Thursday said that a total sum of N8,572,152,849.05 has been released for payment of pensions, gratuity and accrued right benefits for retirees in the State from the inception of his administration to date.
The governor who made this known at the presentation of bond certificates to contributory pensioners at all levels of government in the state, explained that, at the local government level, “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 the 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”
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 the paucity of funds threatens implementation, I insisted we must act to satisfy our senior citizens who are suffering in retirement.
