The call is coming on the heels of the government announcement of its preparedness to commence the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) with the aim of surmounting the challenges of the traditional Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).

The party said the governor’s failure to pay pensioners their retirement benefits had resulted in the deaths of some pensioners, saying that it is sheer wickedness to deliberately punish pensioners who served the state meritoriously.

Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement that the appeal became imperative on the heels of the recent death of the State Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Pa Rufus Kayode Ogedengbe, who died of minor ailment because he could not afford simple medicare.

“Ekiti people can no longer tolerate this deliberate callousness that results in the deaths of those that paid through their sweats to productively contribute to the development of Ekiti State while Fayose releases huge amount of money monthly to his media aide,
Lere Olayinka, to abuse President Muhammadu Buhari on social media,” he said, adding:

He said it is heartless for the governor to deny pensioners their entitlements over purported shortage of funds while buying up pages of newspapers to abuse the President for self-serving motives on a daily basis.

APC spokesman also berated the governor over refusal to pay the state workers who are children of pensioners their entitlements, while also making life unbearable for traders through heavy taxation.

“Private business owners are facing unbearable tax burden to cope with daily survival while petty traders have been sent packing from the trading posts and the few ones still in operation are being pursued by Fayose’s agents for obnoxious taxes,” he said.

Asking the governor to learn from former Governor Kayode Fayemi who paid regaularly pensioners during his tenure without owing them a dime, Olatunbosun said: “We have asked Fayose many times what he has done with the bailout fund from which he is supposed to pay the backlog of arrears of pensioners and the severance allowances of former political office holders but he has refused to render any account; instead, he has been going round local governments deceiving the workers about the true financial position of the state.”

“It is even worse with pensioners of the state College of Education who have not received any payment for about six months”

Speaking in Ikogosi Ekiti at an enlightenment workshop on the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), the State Head of Service, Dr. Olugbenga Faseluka noted that the inability of government to effectively cope with the huge funding requirement leading to subsequent accumulation of debts on pension and gratuities has made CPS as a preferred option for the payment of exit benefit in the public service.

Faseluka emphasized the urgent need to take proactive measures to manage the inevitable future payment of pension and gratuities of upcoming Civil Servants, adding that the switch to Contributory Pension Scheme would eliminate the burden on government as well as ensure prompt payment of due allowances to beneficiaries.