By Abel Leonard
Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has assured pensioners in the state of prompt payment of their entitlements.
Sule gave the assurance on Friday when he received the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Nasarawa State Chapter, at the Government House, Lafia.
“These are people who have served the state and local governments, they deserve to rest as they retire, hence the need for the retirees to be given their allowances.
“We have been talking to different organizations especially the development partners to find out if some of them have some kind of programs for retirees and pensioners,” he said.
He promised that every issue presented by the union to the government would be looked into and addressed based on the availability of resources.
“I am hoping that I will one day in Nasarawa State see a situation where pensioners don’t worry about the payment of their monthly pensions because they have been empowered,” he said.
Earlier, the Chairman of the union, Alhaji Musa Obakpa, appealed to the governor to sustain government`s augmenting of the shortfall in allocations to local governments to continue the payment of full salaries and pensions at the third tier of government.
Obakpa commended the governor for his effort to put an end to the percentage payment of pensions at both state and local government levels.
He said that the governor’s immediate compliance with the local government autonomy was a step worth commending.
He appealed for the implementation of the 12 percent and 33 per cent increase in pension of those who retired before the new minimum wage.
The chairman also called on the state government to direct the local government authorities to carry out a verification of pensioners in collaboration with the union.
He said that this would ease the identification of eligible pensioners on the pension allowance payroll.
