By Austin Ogwuda
RETIREES in Delta State under the aegis of Association of Contributory Retirees (ACR) have vowed to protest, come next week October 5, 2023 over alleged plan by the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Delta State chapter to extort the sum of N4 million from each of them.
Angered by the purported move the retirees said the coming protest to be staged would be making it the 12th of staging protests against being shortchanged as well as non payment of their pension arrears.
They argued that deducting the N4m from each retiree will invariably affect his or her gratuity take home benefits.
Rising from an emergency general meeting held in Ozoro, September 20, 2023 the retirees raised a communique signed by Chief (Mrs) Ejieh Helen Chionye, Chairperson of ACR and Prince F. Gordons, Secretary of ACR.
The meeting which was attended by over 3,000 retirees from across the State exhausted deliberation on the plan by ALGON to deduct the sum of N4million describing it “as the evil, wicked and inhuman plan, allegedly spearheaded by Hon Victor Ebonka, Chairman of ALGON to further increase the sufferings and hardship retirees have been subjected to for the past seven years that our gratuities had remained unpaid”.
“The Oct 5, 2023 protest will be the 12th since agitation for the payment of over due gratuities began in Delta State”, they stated.
The Town Hall Media gathered that the incumbent governor Sheriff Oborevwori inherited the problem from his predecessor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa who was said to have paid deaf ears to all eleven protests staged earlier to the Government House, Asaba.
Oborevwori on assumption of office as Governor sought ways to resolve the problem and granted approval to the ALGON to obtain N40 billion loan to defray part of the debts owed the retirees latest August 2023.
However, on September 1st, 2023, ALGON was said to have invited leadership of ACR to a meeting at the office of the SSG in Asaba to discuss modalities for the payment.
During the meeting, our Reporter gathered that the retirees were taken aback when Hon Victor Ebonka introduced ALGON’s hired Consultant who on a projector, displayed the take home of each category of retirees, using a strange template and indicating a shortfall of N4 million from each retiree’s gratuity.
Peeved by the development the retirees reasoned that the deductions would obviously go into the pockets of ALGON.
Reacting, the embattled Delta State Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon. Victor Ebonka denied deducting N4 million from retired local government workers and primary school teachers in the State.
Addressing newsmen in Asaba, Ebonka described the allegations as outright falsehood and challenged the retirees behind the allegation to invite any investigating authority into the matter.
The ALGON boss said the N40 billion loan facilitated and guaranteed by the State government on behalf of ALGON, was meant to pay accrued benefits of retired local government workers, primary school teachers and staff of the Local Education Authorities.
According to him, “the first meeting we had was at the SSG’s office. We made it known to them that we cannot pay this huge amount without engaging the services of an Actuary to determine each retiree’s entitlement and the consultant was introduced to them.
“The Consultant discovered a lot of missing and wrong information in the data used to compute the previous Accrued Rights.
“The Consultant further discovered that the previous pension benefits were calculated using a Mandatory Retirement Age (MRA) assumption of 45 years instead of 60 years of age or 35 years of service as stipulated in the Civil Service Law.
“This assumption implies that workers will start receiving pension from the age of 45 years and during this period they will also be receiving salary from the government for which more than 90% of retirees falls into this category.
“This is wrong as you cannot be a pensioner and also an active employee of the same organization at the same time. “This flaw”, he went on, “resulted in an overstatement of the pension component of the Accrued Rights.
“So we brought this to their notice and told them that we cannot continue paying pensions calculated using a Mandatory Retirement Age of 45 and we need to correct any wrong information used in computing the previous benefits.
“They argued that some of their colleagues had received their pension using 45 years calculation, but we told them that because some persons received money that they were not entitled to does not mean that we will allow the illegality to continue and they agreed”, said Ebonka in defence.
He said both parties agreed to handover the consultant’s report to the Auditor General (Local Govt) for further auditing, and expressed surprise at the turn of events.
Ebonka further said extant civil service law stipulated 60 years retirement age or 35 years of service, which should be the basis of computing pension benefits.He clarified that the N40 billion was not in the coffers of Local Government Chairmen, but had been paid directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for disbursement by the Bureau of Pension.
The ALGON Chairman maintained that the allegation of misappropriation of the money was a complete misinformation and outright falsehood.
Ebonka said payment would commence after all issues had been resolved, adding that retirees with discrepancies/errors in their date of appointment, date of birth, Grade Level & Step must rectify such anomalies.