Ibadan Poly retirees demand increased funding for gratuity

Reject alleged alteration of retirement dates

The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Ibadan Polytechnic branch, has demanded the monthly funding of the gratuities of its members by the Oyo State government.

This, it said, would enable members of the union to address the challenges that they are facing, especially this economic hardship. Chairman of the NUP, Ibadan Poly branch, Segun Akindele, who spoke during a media briefing in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday, expressed reservation over the alleged practice where retirement dates are being altered to insert names of some retirees into the list of payment by some officers at the state Ministry of Finance.

Akindele, who lamented that efforts by the NUP to seek an audience with the Oyo State Commissioner of Finance were unsuccessful, said: “We have 245 members whose gratuities have either not been paid or fully paid. Out of the 245 members with outstanding gratuities, 60 are deceased, putting the percentage at 25.”

He recalled that the state council of the NUP joined other unions in the state to protest in July 2023, the outcome of which led Governor Seyi Makinde to give assurance that his government would pay the gratuities.to Oyo pensioners the following August 2023.

He said that though Makinde fulfilled his promise, he released the payment along with the August salaries of workers in the state.

“Retirees in Oyo State, except for the pensioners of the Polytechnic Ibadan, were paid in September 2023. Our retirees here at the Polytechnic Ibadan were not paid until January 18, 2024, because the list and funds for payment were not sent to the management of the institution until December 2023 by the Ministry of Finance. The list of the retirees sent by the ministry contained names of 101 members out of which 28 were deceased and was funded by N30.7 million.

“Though the union and its members agreed to install payment, some were paid a paltry N200,000 out of N7.5 million. Another list for payment was received on campus in February 2024 and was not backed up with funds. To our surprise, the list contained largely the same names that were paid in January 2024, instead of the list to be drawn from the 239 members that were left out in the list of December 2023,” Akindele lamented.

He added: “We demand that henceforth, payment should run through the entire members of retirees before it will come to the turn of whoever has been paid before. We equally demand monthly funding and payment of our gratuities and increase funding for payment bearing in mind the size of the portfolio (N1.7bn) of our gratuity.”