Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has released the sum of N340 million for the payment of gratuity of 1,193 state and local government retirees.
The Director-General, State Pension Bureau, Sulieman Nagogo disclosed this at a briefing yesterday in Lafia, the state capital.
The D-G said the approval of the N340 million was to offset the gratuity of 576 and 614 local government and state retirees respectively. He added that the gesture was aimed at alleviating the plights of retirees in the state.
Nagogo explained that the administration inherited a backlog of debt of gratuity and pension benefits of retirees at the state and local government levels from successive administrations in the state.
He said: “Upon my assumption of office, I discovered that the magnanimous posture of Abdullahi Sule knows no bounds and that is why his government has continued to attend to the plights of pensioners of the state.
“The governor swung into action by offsetting the backlog of pension arrears witnessed in January 2022 for local government pensioners as well as the approved quarterly release of N340 million to pay the gratuity of state and local government retirees.
“Apart from this, there were litigations at various courts of law filed by pensioners against the state government. These dispositions were worrisome to His Excellency, considering the fact that these Pensioners had served the state meritoriously and needed not to be treated shabbily.
“In addition, the Governor took bold steps at settling their grievances through Out-of-Court Settlement which brought about the relative peace and harmony between the aggrieved Pensioners and the State Government,” Nagago said.
He pledged the Bureau’s readiness to continue to support the cause of governance in the state.
Nagogo assured the people of the state government’s commitment to attending to the plights of retirees as a show of appreciation for the services they have rendered to the state.
The D-G, therefore, called on the people of the state to continue to support the Governor Sule-led administration to enable him to provide the dividends of democracy for the people.
Discussion about this post