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ENUGU STATE RETIREES LANGUISH AS GOVERNOR MBAH OWES OVER N26.88 IN PENSIONS, GRATUITIES
The Enugu State government under Governor Peter Mbah is owing N26,847,958,721.56 in gratuities and verified pension arrears according to audited report of the Accountant-General of the state for the year ended, 31st December 2023.
The report, however, indicated that the N26,847,958,721.56 amount was owed as of December 31, 2020.
Governor Mbah had on Tuesday announced while presenting budget proposal for 2025 fiscal year that the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, had grown from N37.4billion at the end of 2023 to N144.7billion in September 2024, representing a radical 286.2 per cent increase.
The Chairman Enugu State Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Elder Ikechukwu Ekere, told SaharaReporters that pensioners in Enugu State are dying of hunger and diseases because they have no money to take care of themselves, coupled with some of them being owed over 40 months arrears of pensions.
According to Ekere, from September 2010 till date, no gratuity has been paid to the pensioners in the core civil service in Enugu, while primary school and local government pensioners haven’t been paid their gratuity since 2006 and parastatals since 2021.
Reacting to the government embarking on acquiring aircraft for the proposed Enugu Air, he said “We have written and we are still following it up. Anywhere they are doing verification I am always there no matter they don’t want to invite us to see that they don’t want us to participate, but I am always there to see that pensioners were not deprived or treated badly.
“We have written to the governor; even the new current N32,000 that was set by the government about the least paid pensioners. We have written also and we are following it up.
“We know that they are generating much money in IGR and we have also told them that they are owing us and we are dying and they want to purchase aircrafts for Enugu Air just like Ibom Air but we are still pushing for our case.”
