By Kabiru Dogon Daji
Birnin Kebbi
Kebbi state government has released the sum of N7.5 billion within two years for the payment of gratuities and pension for the retired civil servants in the state.
Addressing a press conference in Birnin kebbi, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Alhaji Usman Dangwari, explained that the Senator Atiku Bagudu-led administration had improved the living condition of pensioners through the prompt payment of their monthly benefits.
“It is well known to everybody in the state that pensioners are receiving their monthly pensions regularly and in good time, and that is why the pensioners are not owed a single kobo in respect of monthly payments,” he said.
He further disclosed that retirees were currently receiving their gratuities and pension arrears out of the N2.5 billion released for December and thanked the government for putting smiles on the faces of pensioners in the state.
Dangwari, however, appealed to the governor to consider upward review of the minimum pension of those who retired before the salary structures of 2003, 2007 and 2014 as their pension stood at only N4, 500 per month which he considered too meager.
