6,055 Ebonyi retired LG workers to get N9b gratuity

The Executive Secretary of the Ebonyi State Local Government Staff Pension Board, Mr Emeka Nwonu, on Friday, revealed that 4,920 retirees and 1,135 deceased pensioners in the 13 local government areas of the state would soon be paid their gratuities, amounting to N9,044,402,05.40bn.

Briefing newsmen in Abakaliki, he noted that the payment would commence in the first quarter of 2025, urging those affected to exercise patience.

He further stated that the gratuities would be paid in phases, beginning with civil servants who retired between June 2023 and December 2024.

Nwonu explained that the current local government chairmen inherited the debt of pensions and gratuities from previous administrations, attributing the accumulation to the unexpected stoppage of remittance of 15% shares from the local government workers’ salaries, wages, and allowances.

Nwonu said: “In compliance with His Excellency’s directive, I immediately made significant steps, got some findings from the principal officers and related stakeholders that would ensure prospective and successful profiling and processes of payment of retirement benefits to the deserving pensioners.

“After about two weeks, I went back and presented my reports to His Excellency, having a total of N9,044,402,05.40bn to be paid to 4,920 retirees and 1,135 deceased pensioners, respectively. I was given a further directive by the governor, which we are almost through with. We also embarked on pensioners’ verification across the 13 LGAs.”

According to him, having presented the total amount to be paid to the local government retirees from 1996 to 2023, amounting to over N9 billion, the council chairmen said that the money was humongous. They reported, based on whistleblowers, that there was corruption in the salary management of local government workers, stressing that people had been retiring, but salaries kept increasing.

He added, “It is in the light of the above that the local government chairmen agreed on a table payment method, which would pave the way for physical verification as it’s ongoing currently. This is the reason local government workers are being owed. With this, ghost workers will be fished out, and money saved.”