Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has assured pensioners in the state that his administration has concluded plans to make disbursement of N200million monthly gratuities to them henceforth, promising to also review pensions in line with current realities.
Governor Oyebanji, who gave this assurance while disbursing over N500million in gratuity cheques to 152 pensioners in Ado- Ekiti on Monday, also promised to review the monthly pension following the discovery that some pensioners still receive abysmally low amount as monthly pension.
The Governor expressed his disapproval for the usual gathering of elderly people in a hall for the purpose of disbursing gratuity cheques to them, and directed the PTAD office to ensure they disburse gratuity on monthly basis henceforth.
The Governor, who also assured pensioners that government has started working out modalities to defray over N40Billion owed, said he had already approve N100million each for both state and local government retirees which must be disbursed on monthly basis to deserving pensioners.
According to him, “Forty Billion is just a number, I don’t think that is something we should not be able to resolve, I am in constant discussion with the committee that is doing this, they are almost done, we are looking at the best deal that will be acceptable to you and government. Once, we get to that level, we should be able to make a very definite mark on that number.
“I have approved that local government and state pensioners should be paid N100million every month for gratuity. I have just increased that of local government from N50million to N100million. So, every month, apart from pension, we will be paying N200million and I believe that will go a long way till we resolve the issue on ground.
