Plateau: 558 retirees benefits over N1.3b pension arrears, says head of service

….Ex 17 LG chairmen under Lalong gets N3.4b loan without single project done

From Daniel Dauda, Jos

Plateau State Head of service, Barr. Rauta Dakok has confirmed that about 558 retirees benefited from the payment of over N1.3 billion pension arrears released by Governor Caleb Mutfwang.

Dakok said they have conducted a verification exercise for pensioners from 1986 to 2022, pleading with pensioners who were yet to received payment to patient as their entitlement will be giving to them.

She further revealed that the Governor has approved a monthly released of N300 million to clear a backlog of pension arrears and gratuities from 1986 to 2022, assuring those who retired from 29th may, 2023 that government will call them for verification exercise soon.

The Plateau head of civil service made this known Tuesday, at the Joseph Gomwalk State Secretariat, Jos, during a monthly ministerial press briefing.

The ministerial press conference is the initiative of Plateau State ministry of information and communication, availing the opportunity for various ministries department agencies (MDAs) to reel out their scorecards.

Dakok acknowledged that government absorbed and issued appointment letters for about 3,000 workers among those that were dismissed not long ago

Recalled, Governor Mutfwang canceled all appointments done by his predecessor, Simon Lalong, effective from October, 2022 to 2023, and constituted a committee to ascertain the eligibility of the appointments.

However, the commissioner ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affect, Ephraim Usman have accused former 17 local governments chairmen under Lalong’s administration for acquiring a loan to the tune of N3.4 billion without executing a single project.

Usman, said findings revealed that each of the 17 local council chairman collected a whooping sum of N200 million loan any project to justified the amount collected.

According to him, the ministry in collaboration with 17 Transition Implementation Committee Chairmen procured 34 Hilux and handover to state owned security outfit, Operation Rainbow for effective community policing.

“Arrangement has been concluded which the Governor approved digitization of indigene and marital certificates to be link with NIN number.

“The ministry is working assiduously to create a Museum for preserving culture of all ethnic nationalities on the Plateau. We witnessed selection and installation of Nglongas stool after many years of vacancy, including other chieftaincy seats in the state.”