Gratuity: C'River Pensioners Groan, Accuses Payment Committee Of Compromise
By Ekanem Asuquo
Attempts by Governor Bassey Otu to kick start the process for clearing arrears of gratuities to retirees in the state spanning from the last stanza of Imoke's administration to the eight years of Senator Ben Ayade seems to have collided with a brick wall.
This is attributable to alleged hijacking of the payment modalities by top ranked government officials ,especially stalwarts of the ruling All Progressives Congress,APC and retired bureaucrats in the service bend on enlisting their cronies for payment in defiance to the chronological order adopted as the criteria for disbursing first chunk of N10 billion.
Findings by The Beagles News revealed that the Committee set up by government to produce a template for commencement of payment has been compromised by inducements from external forces.
A retiree who spoke on condition of anonymity said" The good intentions of the governor to pay us our lingering gratuity is seriously being frustrated .
A cabal comprising retired permenent secretaries, alongside their serving counterparts, and heavily backed by political class have surreptitiously taken over the process.
"From our findings, retired permenent secretaries and some pensioners shortlisted by APC chieftains have been batched for payment, irrespective of when they left the service. And 70% of the N10 billion approved by the governor has been budgeted for their list.
Those of us without political godfathers are to queue for the balance of 30%. You can see the level of wickedness.
These retired permenent secretaries are supposed to be standing trails for aiding and abetting the looting spree that characterized the last administration in the state, rather than coming to shortchanged us"
He attributed the delay in payment to the compromising posture of committee members who are now buying time to fine tune their nefarious sharing formula of 70% and 30% allocation.
He stressed" 70% is for college of permanent secretaries and political gladiators while 30% for those without connections.
Those of you who are mathematicians should know 70% of 10 billion and 30% left for old men and women struggling to buy BP drugs and food in this economy "
Governor Otu is not aware of this scam. the committee members who are claiming to be diligent, subjecting aged men and women to rigorious screening are rather the thieves that have connived with some groups like NLC, TUC, NUP, NUT and etc. to agreed on their evil plan to thwart the effort of the state governor in settling the areas of gratuity over the years.
"The 10 billion naira was meant to settle up to 2016 if follow systematically.
The invitation by NUP to retirees to complete bio-data forms Africa Club, Calabar Road is adding salt to injuries after series of multiple verification exercise.
This ploy is a distraction to further confused the people that they are representing after they have outrightly sold our birth rights" Other retirees who spoke appealed to Governor Otu to wade in by dissolving the committee to pave way for a thorough investigations.
