By Editor
The Government of the State of Osun considers it imperative to correct the mischief, delivered constant disturbance of public peace and the misleading conduct of the supposedly senior citizens who are tiny group of the acclaimed 2011/2012 retirees over the payment of pension and gratuity.
In a statement signed by Adelani Baderinwa, The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, and made available to our medium. It is crystal clear that the so called 2011/2012 pensioner group are obvious liars with their incessant political protests, and unbecoming of a retire civil servant who ought to be placed and respected as a senior citizen.
The 2011/2012 pensioners group are fraction of those who retired from service in 2012 to avoid being part of the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The government had explained, and we will not be tired of explaining to the public until the naysayers accept the reality and the truth; how the N6.314bn second tranche of the Paris Club Loan Refund was used to pay July and August 2015 salary arrears, balance of 2015 leave bonus, the July 2017 salary and pension which amounted to a total of N5, 131,680,567.59.
This was done in line with the recommendation of Comrade Hassan Sumonu led Revenue Allocation Committee. The Internally Generated Revenue of the state is not up to N1.5bn, yet this group of supposedly senior citizens who have chosen to be ready tool in the hand of opposition lied that the IGR and PAYE is N9.5bn. The gratuity of pensioners in the stated is over N9bn and the state cannot obviously afford that now.
Indeed, the people of the State should, as a matter of necessity ask this so called senior citizens how they come about the figure of over N9 billion as internally generated revenue when Lagos, the acclaimed highest internally revenue generating state do not have such record.
It is disturbing and unfortunate that the acclaimed 2011/2012 retires have chosen to be blackmailing the Government of the State of Osun, and persistently constituting nuisance on the street of Osogbo to the detriment of peace loving citizens through sponsored protest on the payment of gratuity and not pension.
We wish to refresh the memories of the good people of the state that the group of pensioners had about three weeks to the release of the second tranche of the Paris club refund staged a protest where they lied that Governor Rauf Aregbesola had received the money and diverted it, when in actual sense, the money has not been released by the Federal Government.
When the money was finally paid last week, the state government officially announced its receipt, yet the same set of 2011/2012 Pensioners have continued to allege that the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration WANTED to DIVERT the money. The same group of pensioners made another ridiculous protest on Thursday, where they said the state government refused to pay their entitlements from the Paris club loan refund which is a blatant lie.
Government wishes to call the attention of the good people of the State of Osun to the fact that the 2011/2012 Group of Pensioners does not represent the totality of pensioners in the state. Other pensioners in the state have not been acting that suspicious like those calling themselves 2011/2012 set of pensioners.
They are set of politically motivated professional protesters hiding under pension matters to blackmail the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola on behalf of their sponsors. The incessant protests are politically motivated and sponsored. Something is fishy on their incessant baseless allegations and protest.
It is important to state that other pensioners in the state have been appreciative of Aregbesola’s commitment to the payment of their pensions, despite the financial challenges. Aregbesola has prioritized the payment of salary and pensions of the workers and senior citizens of the state. It amounts to ingratitude, mischief and politicization of fact to accused Aregbesola of not paying pension and gratuity by anybody.
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