Nasarawa State Council of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has reacted to a High Court order that garnisheed the entire accounts of the Nasarawa State Government.
The leadership of the union on Thursday made their stand known on the recent garnishee order during a press conference in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital.
The Chairman of pensioners union in Nasarawa, Alhaji Musa Obakpa, said the move by “Grassroot Concern Pensioners” to continue with a case earlier filed against the Nasarawa State government after the national secretariat of pensioners in Abuja had pleaded that it be settled out of court ,was unfortunate and despicable.
Alhaji Musa Obakpa,the state NUP chairman and the secretary, Alhaji Ibrahim Usman ,along with other exco members of the union, noted that the position of the Grassroot pensioners, who, according to them, are only 650 out of the total number of over 9000 pensioners in the state, did not reflect the interest of other loyal pensioners who considered dialogue and diplomacy as the best way to settle the lingering problem.
“It is our utter dismay that when eventually the sum of N76 million was released for the payment of June 2020 gratuity, that the leadership of the Concern Group vehemently disagreed that they are no longer part of the earlier consensus of the 30-70 percent payment, insisting that the entire fund should be paid,” he said.
The NUP leadership, however, explained that upon assumption of office of Governor Abdullahi Sule, who made a public declaration of abolition of percentages payment of pension with a promised to review upward the monthly N20 million often paid by the state government for payment of gratuity to N50 million, while the sum of N10million will be paid by each of the 13 Local government council, making a total sum of N180 million per month.
He said it was regrettable that event however took a different dimension owing to the outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19.
