Gratuities: Probe state pensions board – APC advises Rivers govt

The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has called on the state government to join forces with anti-graft agencies to investigate and probe the state pension office.

The APC said it has “received credible information from multiple sources” that some officials of the state pension office who should be “serving the interest of retired civil servants” in Rivers State have turned themselves into “black marketers”.

The state Publicity Secretary of APC, Darlington Nwauju on Tuesday claimed that the pensioners are being demanded to pay hundreds of thousands of naira in exchange for “routine physical interview sessions” conducted for them or their family members before payments of gratuities.

Nwauju wondered how a “simple exercise” aimed at eliminating identity theft would be “turned to an avenue for exploitation of poor pensioners or their relatives” just as he expressed sadness that most retirees from the state civil service from 2015 till date are yet to access their pensions.

The APC called on the Rivers State Government not to adopt the “primitive style of living in self-denial” but to deal squarely with the “racketeering and unethical practices going on at the state pension office”.

The APC spokesman said the party is also aware that the state’s contributory pension scheme has forced hundreds of civil servants into early retirement as the scheme has totally “collapsed”.