RIVERS RETIREES VERIFICATION, PAYMENT SHROUDED IN SECRECY

The ongoing verification and payment of monthly arrears owed Rivers state pensioners by the state government has been described as an exercise shrouded in secrecy, just as unconfirmed allegations are rife that some of those already verified and paid were fleeced before payment of their cheques.

Although, the Director General of the state Pensions Board, Mr Ijeoma Samuel could not be contacted as at press time to react to the allegations against his staff as he was said to be out of the office when contacted, some already verified and paid retirees in the first phase of the exercise who spoke to our Correspondent on condition of anonymity maintained that they were forced to part with various sums of money before their cheques were released to them.

But the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Comrade Collins Iheanyi Nwankwo alleged that the payment is shrouded in secrecy, pointing out that leadership of the union in the state is kept in the dark about the whole exercise.

Comrade Nwankwo who made the allegation on Tuesday while speaking to newsmen in his office in Port Harcourt, the state capital said, “some have been paid, some have not been paid. Some people have been calling in to say, look oh, I’ve been verified but uptill now, I’ve not been paid. We don’t know why we’ve not been paid and we, as leaders of the pensioners in the state, we’re not well informed and we’re not well involved. It’s like things shrouded in secrecy.

“They’re just doing it within themselves like that and we’re not happy about it . . . You know, when things are done in that form, it creates room for suspicion, it creates room for people to cast aspersions on the entire exercise. So, that’s the problem . . . The pattern of payment now,we really don’t know, whether there are influences permeating the payment processes.”

On the actual debt of the arrears of monthly pensions owed retirees by the state government and the way forward, he stated, “they themselves know that it’s not a small amount, it’s a very huge amount of money . . . Suffice it to know that the amount owed by the state government in respect of unpaid pensions in this state runs into billions of Naira, tens of billions . . . Since you insist, it’s over a hundred billion.”

Comrade Nwankwo stated that when the amount proposed, presented and approved by the state House of Assembly in the 2022 budget, “we raised voices to say, look this is a pittiance considering the magnitude of debt in this regards. The money is very small. But the issue is this, since we’ve been battling with the government to get this thing done and nothing, we said let them get started.

“But then, even with what is going on now, we don’t know whether the release the governor made was based on what was appropriated or not because, although, we had cried that this amount is too small, only God knows how much has been released now for this ongoing exercise. But it’s not really giving what it’s supposed to be. It might be that the amount released might be a very meagre one and the handlers are trying to cover up and all that.”

On the way forward, he said, “at least, finish with the people that have been verified in the first phase and get them paid. When you pay them, you go over to the second phase; they come for the second exercise and you also get them paid. You keep moving down like that. Those who are paid will be happy and those who are not paid will now be hopeful because they’ve seen the exercise produced the desired results.”