WorldStage Newsonline– Kano State government is owing its retired workers over N20 billion gratuities, no thanks to failure of some government agencies to remit their monthly eight per cent pension contribution to the trustees.
Sani Dawaki Gabasawa, Chairman, Kano State Pension Fund Trustees told newsmen on Thursday in Kano that the pension trustees had not been able to pay gratuities to retirees since 2016, saying, over 31,000 retirees are awaiting payment of their gratuities of N20 billion accumulated backlog.
He said, “As I am talking to you, we pay N1.2 billion pension to retirees every month. Every month the pension increases.
“We are in a difficult situation. Let me tell you that there must be delay in the payment of gratuities in this state. This is because the state has not paid gratuities since 2016 due to lack of funds.”
Gabasawa, however, expressed hope that the state government would resume paying gratuities to the retirees as Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje had formed a committee to ratify all discrepancies so as to continue disbursement of the retired workers’ entitlements.
He denied allegations that he engaged in negotiation with retirees to pay certain percentage of their entitlements before they were paid their gratuities.
Gabasawa also described as blatant lies the allegation that he appointed his children in key positions at the pension office to use them as fronts for alleged shady deals.
