The ongoing disparity in payments of retired civil servants in Kogi state of their pension and gratuity between beneficiaries from Kogi central and kogi east is against the law, Igala Socio Cultural group Igala Vanguard said.
In a statement signed by Engr Lawrence Akpa revealed that an investigation launched by Igala Vanguard allegedly confirmed that retired civil servants from kogi Central and of Ebira extraction gets preferential treatment against their counterpart from kogi east interms of payment in monetary.
It was further revealed that payment of gratuity for Kogi easterners not minding the rank stands at N100,000, while their counterparts from kogi Central gets a lump sum of between N1Million to N5Million as directed by the state government.
This is also applicable to payments of pension to beneficiaries,as people from kogi Central ,the governor’s extraction usually get maximum attention and huge payments compared to the people from kogi east.
This development is saddening and had being in practice in the last six years in kogi state.
Efforts to confirm the unfortunate development fell on deaf ears, as many worker’s confronted in the state pension board confirm it was an instructions from above, with fear of losing their jobs.
The state chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress NLC and Nigerian Union of Pensioners NUP in Kogi state could not be reached ,as at the time of filing this report.
Some pensioners who had the opportunity of expressing their feelings confirmed that their friends in Kogi central have subjected them to a laughing stock, saying with the Governor of Kogi state from the central, they have edge in payments of pension and gratuity ahead of people of Kogi east.
It is unheard of,the ongoing disparity in pension payments in any part of the country, except in Kogi state at the instance of the state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
