Benue Pension Arrears Hit N8Bn

Mike Iyordye, the head of service of Benue state has announced that the pensioners in Benue State are owed a whooping N8 billion.
He said this in Makurdi, he Benue state capital, at the public hearing organised by the Senate Joint Committee on Pensions and Public Service for the North central zone.
According to him, out of this amount, local government pensioners were owed N4.2 billion.
While lamenting that the bill for the take-off of the scheme was still with the state assembly, he added that the state was yet to commence the new pension scheme.
He also complained of insufficiency of funds to pay gratuities of its retired staff.
The head of service said that the gratuities increased with enhanced emoluments which made it difficult for a ‘poor state like Benue to pay.’
He, however, said that the state was planning to obtain a discounted loan from a bank to offset the backlog of its gratuities to enable it start on a clean slate.
However, Sen. George Akume, former governor of the state, disagreed that the state lacked funds to pay gratuities.
‘If there is a will to pay, the gratuities will be paid. It is not as if there is no money, yes, there is money,’ Akume insisted.
He said it was a matter of prudent management, adding that his administration paid pensions and gratuities from the pool of funds available to the state.  
The committee gave the state seven days to submit memoranda and to appear before it in Abuja with a detailed plan on how to settle pensioners’ gratuities.
It also ordered its secretariat to send a letter to the state assembly for the prompt passage of the new pension law.