Benue Govt Raises Hope Of Pensioners As State Assembly Approves N41bn Loan

Benue state government on Tuesday raised the financial hope of pensioners in the state after 35 and 74 months of hardship over the non-payment of their retirement benefits.

Governor Samuel Ortom in a press statement issued to journalists in Makurdi declared that, the N41 billion loan approved by the State House of Assembly would be used to clear the salaries and pension arrears of workers.

The statement which was signed by the governor’s special adviser on media and publicity, Terver Akase, quoted Governor Ortom as saying the N41 billion loan approved by the state House of Assembly few days ago was only a re-validation of the application for the pending bailout of N41 billion and not a fresh loan approval, and that the money would be used to upset salaries, gratuity and pension arrears.

“Out of the N41 billion, N17 billion will go for payment of the arrears of salaries and pensions at the state level, while N24 billion will go to local governments” the statement read in part.

The statement explained that the governor Ortom administration had applied for a bailout in 2015 which the Federal Government had resolved to give to states to cushion the adverse effects of the recession and enable them to pay the outstanding salaries and pensions.

The statement claimed that the State Government then sought the approval of the State House of Assembly and applied for N69 billion Naira bailout which would have addressed the backlog of the emoluments but regretted that the Federal Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Nigeria, approved and released only N28 billion of the bailout leaving N41 billion pending.

“Out of the N28 billion that came to the state, N15.5 billion was for the 23 local government areas while N12.5 went to the state for payment of the outstanding emoluments.

“While other states were able to later re-validate the 2015 bailout application and were given the balance of the total amount they originally requested it lamented that “Benue State Government despite several efforts to get the N41 billion balance released to it, such efforts could not yield results as the Federal Government was not forthcoming until recently.” The statement added.