Niger House of Assembly on Tuesday summoned the directors-general of the state and the local government pension boards for the non-payment of pension and gratuities of retirees.

The summons followed a motion by Mohammed Haruna (APC-Bida II) asking the house to urgently set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the non-payment of the pensions and gratuities.

Speaker of the House, Abdullahi Bawa, said the duo should appear before the ad hoc committee members on Thursday.

Mr Haruna said the unpaid gratuities since 2015 had resulted in continuous protests by retirees over the failure of the present administration to pay the entitlements spanning more than five years.

He noted that the affected retirees had been protesting in the past six months and blocked the entrance to the Government House on December 13, 2022. 

The lawmaker expressed concerns that the retirees, after serving the state in their agile years, had been reduced to beggars as they had no other source of income. He also worried that the 178 retirees were paid from the N1 billion the state government approved for the boards in November 2022, leaving 14,200 pensioners yet to be paid.

He noted that the state government needed about N14 billion to offset outstanding pensions and gratuities.

Mr Haruna added that it was saddening that many pensioners had passed on without enjoying the benefits of their service of 35 years to the state and stressed that the situation needed the urgent intervention of the legislature before more of the retirees die without enjoying their benefits.

In his contribution, Malik Madaki (APC-Bosso) said the continuous protests and the saying of prayers by retirees at the entrance of the Government House was a bad omen that should not be overlooked, noting that since the inception of the present administration in 2015, it had employed only about 1,000 staff while more than 6,000 civil servants had retired from the service between 2015 and 2022.

The lawmaker pointed out that monthly pensions had continued to rise from N150 million to more than N500 million. Mr Madaki also noted that many people had retired from service, but the state’s wage bill had not reduced.

(NAN)