Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has presented a total sum of one hundred and fifty million naira in cheques to seventy-four pensioners as gratuities.
The gratuities were allocated to retired primary school teachers and local government staff across the sixteen Local Government Areas of the state as the governor had promised to establish a Special Health Intervention Programme to arrest the harrowing experience of untimely death among pensioners due to poor medicare.
While presenting the cheques, Governor Oyebanji said that his government will put hands on the plough to fast-track payment of the backlog of gratuity owed to pensioners so that they can fully savour the benefits of the labour made during their productive years and promised that his government would facilitate ways of ensuring monthly payments to offset the arrears.
“By next year, we will do better than this. I desire that we want everybody(retirees) to be paid up to date under my watch. I want to assure you that we will be doing this every month. Let us keep faith with God. If we do this monthly, our state will no longer default in payment of gratuity.
“We can never default on the payment of pension because many of you are collecting less than N10,000 monthly. There are those who are collecting as low as N300 or N400, but the government is looking for a way to make N10,000 the least pay for everybody.”
“By the grace of God, we will have a permanent solution to the issue of gratuity. You have made sacrifices and committed your lives to serve our state, I think you must be made to enjoy the fruits of your labour.” he said.
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