Says he owes pensioners apology for failed promise
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke for failing to pay up the backlog of their contributory pensions within six months of his assumption of office.
The party in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo on behalf of the State chairman of the party, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal tasked the state Governor Ademola Adeleke to tender an unreserved apology to the pensioners in the state for disappointing them in his campaign promise.
According to APC, it will now dawn on the state pensioners and the civil servants that the Adeleke-led government is fraught with deceit in its execution of its campaign promises.
It would be recalled that a statement issued by the state Head of Service, Mr S.A. Aina yesterday stated that the Adeleke administration has approved the release of bond certificates worth N2.1bn for the payment of accrued right benefits of another batch of retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme at the state and local government levels today.
The statement went further to state that, “The beneficiaries of this kind gesture of the governor are retired staff of local government areas, local council development areas, area councils, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), secondary schools, tertiary institutions and parastatals.”
The Osun State chairman of the APC hinted that the information about the mere approval for the payment of the N2.1bn CPS bond for the retirees showed that the Adeleke administration is lacking in the sincerity of purpose as the so-called pension bond would be the second time of such in about nine months in the life of the PDP administration in the state.
Lawal queried that if Adeleke does not have anything to hide, he should separate the figures his government is allocating to the primary school teachers, to the civil servants, retired employees in the parastatals, secondary school teachers who retired on CPS.
The state APC chairman who stated that the primary schools and local government workers are to be catered for by the local government disclosed that Adeleke is not announcing the amount allocated to each of the segments of the retired workforce because the administration has something to hide.
Lawal hinted that the Adeleke administration is wicked and non-empathetic to the contributory pensioners and that its actions and inactions is a typical example of one in a motion without movement.
In the state APC chairman’s words, “If we calculate N500m for the state alone in nine months for the Contributory Pension Scheme, it amounts to N4.5bn for the state alone. If we calculate same for the local governments, it is N4.5bn, making the total that the Adeleke administration is due for, at the minimum, to be N9bn.
“If Adeleke pays N500m continuously in 48 months of his tenure, he can only pay N24bn at the end of his tenure which is a far cry to the outstanding liabilities at the state and the local government levels.
“For nine months now, Adeleke has been able to pay less than N4bn plus the local government liabilities of the pension. If we divide 48 months by four times, he would only be able to pay N12bn in four years of his tenure.
“The immediate-past Governor Gboyega Oyetola paid the Contributory Pension Scheme of the civil servants, parastatals and secondary school retirees on the CPS from 2016 to April 2018 and paid in full all the retirees on the CPS whose bonds were between N100K and N2m in full till December 2020. In all, despite poor state of finances, the Oyetola administration paid over N40 billion to settle pensions and N97 billion from the state indebtedness.
“Why is it difficult or impossible for Governor Adeleke to paste the names of the beneficiaries of the questionable pension bonds as it was the practice during his predecessor’s tenure if truly he has nothing to hide?
“The retired primary school teachers CPS pensioners are still in 2016. Adeleke should tell the whole world which one he is paying if he has nothing to conceal?
“Now that the local government councils are bouyant, why is Adeleke wasting their funds on phantom contracts instead of releasing chunk funds to these hapless retirees to save their lives and jump-start the economy of the state by releasing their bond certificates as he promised to do within six months in his campaign promise?
“Governor Adeleke should tell the public how many retirees would be paid and what are their names? How many school teachers would benefit and what are their identities?
“What is the meaning of this ‘talk-and-do’ in the face of these malfeasance and man inhumanity to man? What Adeleke is doing to these retirees is a crying scandal.
“Which month is Adeleke paying in the civil service, the parastatals, the secondary school teachers or is he paying only the retirees from Ede?
“Is Governor Adeleke following the register of the pensioners; is it that there is no favouritism in the process that his government is known for? The government should tell the people of the State what it is doing with its share of the subsidy palliative funds,” Lawal said.
The Osun State APC Chairman who observed that the state retirees would be weeping for the Adeleke criminal betrayal of fraudulently harvesting their votes enjoined the religious bodies to start praying for these retirees for these ingratitude shown to them by Governor Adeleke.
Lawal hinted that the Adeleke posture towards the expectant Osun State pensioners is a typical example of the over-burdened cliche of them boarding a ‘one-chance’ vehicle.
