There was mild drama on the streets of Benin city, the Edo state capital as hundreds of local government pensioners protested the non-payment of their pension arrears owed by the state government.
This did not go down well with Mr Timothy Uwagboe, the secretary, Local Government Pensioners Association, Edo State chapter, who told journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat, Benin, that the claim made by the governor’s aide, showed his ignorance of the law that established State Local Government Staff Pension Board in each of the 36 states of the federation as contained in Decree No. 20 of 1985.
Some of the pensioners during their protest in Benin city, the Edo state capital on Tuesday, November 3, 2015
An utterly surprised Uwagboe accused Afegbua of being one of the people misleading Governor Oshiomhole, as he explained further that Section 210 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, specifically mandated state governments to take charge in the state, while Section 173 of the same Constitution relates to Federal Government.
According to him: “When was the law that establish State Local Government Staff Pension Boards repealed, amended or expunged from the law of the federal? Who controls the Local Government Councils and collects their allocation from the federation account monthly?”
The pensioners’ secretary also affirmed that the the state’s executive council is in charge of every parastatal in the state, which he believes that the local government staff pension board is part of.
“We therefore need to state as follows: that the law establishing the Pension Board, provides that the federal, state and local government should jointly fund the Local Government Staff Pension Board.
“That on the 1st day of March 2011, the Edo State House of Assembly passed three resolutions mandating the executive arm the government to meet and collect from the federal government its share of fund as provided by the law, that the state government should pay the arrears of its share of the fund from when the governor came to office and to urgently harmonize the older pensioners so as to meet the realities of the present day economic situations,” he added.
Afegbua, however opposed the claims made by the protesters, reiterating that the state government is not responsible for the payment of local government staff.
He noted that the local government service commission should settle the pensions of local government workers who have retired through the their staff pension board, and that the state government can only help them harmonize their old pension and gratuity whenever they are having difficulties, not that it is the governor’s responsibility to pay .... news as posted by naij.com
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