Oyo State government says it has so far paid N11.7 billion in less than two years, as part of the N56 billion gratuity arrears owed pensioners by previous administrations in the state.
Governor Seyi Makinde disclosed this at the annual conference of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) in Abuja where the governor was honoured by the body as the Pensioners’ Friendly Governor and conferred with an Award of Excellence in Governance.
The governor, who was represented by his executive assistant, administration and general services, Idowu Ogedengbe, said “when we came in May 2019, we promised the people to serve them with sincerity, probity and accountability.
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“We promised to run a government of inclusiveness and we are very mindful to let the people know the challenges we were facing when we came into office, we had quite a huge liability of arrears, pensioners’ gratuity was amounting to about N56 billion and we did not want to give any excuse for non-performance.
“We decided to start offsetting these gratuities and as of today, we have paid out of that amount, N11.7 billion, which translates to an average of over N500 million every month, we desire to do more because it is our firm belief as an administration that you do not muzzle the mouth of the horse that trash the corn, our pensioners deserve the best, they have used their active years to serve the state. Now that they are out of service, we owe them the responsibility to ensure that they live a good life.”
Chairman of the occasion and former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, while presenting the award, said Governor Makinde had shown sincerity in leadership and was worthy of the honour from the pensioners.
