Thousands of Federal pensioners are currently languishing in abject poverty, following the non-payment of their pensions and gratuities by the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Huhuonline.com can confirm.
Investigations conducted by our team of reporters revealed that most of the pension officials deployed to various states for verification of pensioners exploited the aged citizens.
One of the affected pensioners decried the non-payment of pension over the past eight years of his retirement from the Civil Service, urging President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly to wade into the manner and contain the menace of corruption in the public service.
Other concerned pensioners, who agreed to speak only anonymously, frowned at the recent ruling on the indicted pension boss by an Abuja court, which sentenced him to two years imprisonment but gave him the option of N750,000 fine, which was paid immediately.
“There is need for Federal Government to demonstrate commitment towards recovering the money because nothing was mentioned to that effect,” one said. “It was amazing to see the position of the Judiciary towards the fight against corruption; it is simply laughable.”
Our correspondent who paid an unscheduled visit to Oyo State also gathered that Governor Abiola Ajimobi has deprived pensioners in the state of four months of outstanding pensions.
Similarly, the Association of Primary School Teachers is pressuring the state government into ensuring timely payment of the outstanding pensions in order to alleviate the sufferings of thousands of teachers who have served the country meritoriously in the their active years.
Most of those affected are primary school teachers, civil servants and workers in Local Government Areas.
Our findings, in addition, revealed that the sour relationship between the state governors and LGAs contributed to the agitation for separation of joint accounts between the two tiers of government, which has grounded development at the LGAs across the country.
