By TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Contributory pensioners in Osun state on Wednesday protested the non payment of their four years benefits by the state government.
The protesting pensioners that consist of retirees of primary school, secondary school and civil service in the state, said the state governor was yet to pay their terminal benefits.
Addressing a press conference at the NUJ press centre in Osogbo, the spokesperson of Forum of Contributory Pensioners in Osun state, Comrade Gbenga Adeosun said immediate past Governor Rauf Aregbseola did not give their case attention.
Adeosun said several letters had been written to the incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola on the need for him to pay their bonds as the governor did not give them listening ears since the inception of his administration.
He said the retired workers have been deprived of government counter part funds and the accrued returns on the invested funds.
Speaking further, he noted that the retired primary and secondary school teachers had parted with seven and half percent of their salaries while in service to the contributory pension scheme saying that the pensioners are “terribly suffering from unimaginable degrees and dimensions of abject poverty.”
Adeosun said, “the Contributory pensioners comprising, civil, secondary and primary schools services of July, 2016 for Civil and Secondary Schools, and July 2015 Primary School to date in Osun state are yet to be paid by the government.
“We gather here today to further appeal to Mr. Governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, to, without further delay, release enough funds to cater for the retirement benefits of this category of pensioners in the state.
“Going down memory lane, it should be placed on record that this forum held this type of press conference on December 25, 2017; when we observed that the Government of the former governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola did not give our case any attention. This was after series of letters written to the then governor, through the then Head of Service, Mr. Yinka Owoeye.
The statement, received by the majority of the forum’s members from the PFAs, showed that the government funded the account to July, 2015, in respect of the primary schools, July, 2016, in respect of civil and secondary services. It should be observed that these funding were made in 2018 and 2019, for retired contributory pensioners from 2015, 2016 and 2017, three years after retiring.”
On actuarial valuation (bonds), Adeosun said, “the state government is hereby notified that necessary ministries, departments and Agencies (MDAs), should set in motion to calculate the profits that our members’ individual “bonds” should have generated since we left the service more than three years ago, our PFAs would have been trading with these funds for our financial benefits.
“It has to be pathetically observed that the contributory pensioners that are being deprived their retirement benefits are now terribly suffering from unimaginable degrees and dimensions of abject poverty.”
The pensioner then appealed to Governor Oyetola to put sufficient funds into the scheme, being the shortfall of the state government’s counter part funding, enough to cater for the contributory pensioners.
They asked the state government to allow them enjoy the fruits of their labour and save them from further untimely deaths, terminal illnesses, poverty, suffering and life of deprivations and penury.
During a peaceful demonstration to demand for their benefits, the protesters carried placards with inscriptions like “Free Us From Bondage and Save Our Souls From Osun Government’s Deceit,” “Many of Us have died, while some are on sickbed,” “We Cannot Met Our Financial Obligations,” “Release Our Bonds Now,” “We Contributed From Our salaries so that we will not suffer after retirement” among others.
But Sola Fasure, the media aide to Governor Rauf Aregbesola had claimed recently while speaking on a radio programme in Osogbo that retirees under the contributory pension scheme are paid till date.
Recall that retirees under the 2011/2012 group of pensioners had also been protesting the nonpayment of their 15 months entitlements by the state government.
