Pensioners to Osun gov: Pay our entitlements now

A group of retirees that left the service of the Osun State Government on the Contributory Pension Scheme on Tuesday protested their unpaid retirement benefits.

The pensioners protested along Osogbo/Iwo Road, displaying placards with inscriptions such as ‘Gov Oyetola, delaying our money is an abuse of power,’ ‘No one sponsored us, but hunger and thirst,’ and ‘Gov Oyetola has paralysed contributory pensioners’ welfare,’ amongst others.

Addressing journalists during the protest, the chairman of the Joint Forum of Contributory Pensioners in the state, Gbenga Oyadare, said retirees, having been deprived of their retirement benefits, were now suffering from abject poverty.

Oyadare then asked the government to cash back and release bond certificates of pensioners who have processed their retirement papers from August 2016.

He also appealed to the state government to put sufficient funds into the CPS scheme, adding that the shortfall in government’s counterpart funding was responsible for the non-payment of their benefits.

He said, “To avoid any legal action, the government should pay the accrued penal fine of at least 2% on the money deducted from our salaries, including the government counterpart fund it failed to remit to our Pension Fund Administrators.

“Government should prioritise half salary arrears payment of contributory pensioners to serve as a veritable source of income for the past six years without earning anything.

“This would financially assist the Contributory Pension retirees before the release of bond certificates, when monthly income will commence from the PFAS.

“Government should urgently pay all the various deductions owed to the contributory pensioners.” Punch