by Abia State Government has set up a Help Desk in the Ministry of Finance to address issues of those who were omitted in the recent payment of arrears of pensions to retirees in Abia State by Governor Alex Otti.
The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu disclosed this while briefing the press in Government House Umuahia on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council meeting. He said that the Help Desk is necessary to ensure nobody was left in the arrears of pensions the Governor has defrayed.
Prince Kanu further stated that government has ordered that henceforth, full monthly pensions would be paid to the retirees the same day salaries of civil servants are paid.
“Arising from some issues associated with the payment of arrears of pensions in the state, Ministry of Finance has set up a Help Desk that will address the issues arising from the cases of those whose names were skipped. The whole idea is to ensure that, that whole process is smooth.
“Following the recent pension payment to our pensioners, His Excellency, Dr. Alex Otti, has ordered that the pensioners be paid on the 28 of every month, just like the civil servants in the state.”
The Commissioner equally announced that the State Government has concluded plans to introduce a Contributing Pension Scheme for civil servants in the state.
He revealed that the state government has approved the reconstruction of 3.5 kilometres Osisioma – Ekeakpara road in Osisioma LGA. and informed that the road would be reconstructed with cement pavement technology to guarantee its duration.
Speaking further on the issues of pensions, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Mike Akpara disclosed that over 9 billion Naira has so far been spent on the payment of arrears of pensions in the state and said that the whole pension was paid as agreed with the Nigerian Union of Pensioners in the state.
“We had an agreement with the Nigerian Union of Pensioners and to what we agreed, His Excellency did exactly what we agreed. And the agreement is to pay the arrears of pensions and that’s exactly what the government has done and they are happy about that.
“Everybody knows that things are hard, so for a government to even own up and do what others have not done even in the past, it needs an applause. Some people got up to 8 million Naira , individuals, so its not a mean thing.
Contributing, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma said the payments are verifiable, adding that the calculations were properly done and the negotiations with the leadership of the pensioners happened without hitches.
“We took it to the extreme and it is true that the Governor had actually mentioned 2014 but from the information I have gathered, we even went beyond 2014, because there were some persons that were owed pension arrears prior to 2014 that we also cleared. It is not on equal bases.
“The Honourable Commissioner for Finance and the Accountant General are already collecting names of those who are having issues and all those issues are going to be resolved”.
On the issue of the forthcoming ANPA programme in the state, where free medical mission is taking place, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ngozi Okoronkwo assured of the readiness of the State and added that the number of prospective patients have increased because of massive interest people have shown in the programme. She added that the increased number would translate to carrying out surgeries of about 25 persons a day.
Dr. Okoronkwo used the opportunity to inform that the State has gotten approval from the Nursing Council to train people in a two year certificate programme that would produce practitioners in community healthcare system who would assist the personnel serving in the communities in providing healthcare to the people.
