The government also informed that it has resolved to start paying gratuity to officers of the State Government that retired from 2019 till date so as to further reduce the backlog of unpaid gratuities to retirees from the State service.

The decision, according to the State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr Wasiu Olatubosun was reached at the last Executive Council meeting of the State on Tuesday.

Olatunbosun explained that the Council, at its 27th meeting of September 29, 2020, directed that a proposal to offset the backlog of unpaid gratuities of retired staff and an initiative to ensure the payment of gratuities of retiring staff in the Oyo State Civil Service as soon as they retire, be urgently initiated by members of a committee comprising the Secretary to the State Government, Head of Service, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, as well as the Commissioner for Finance.

“The committee presented its findings and recommendations at the last Executive Council meeting and it was proposed that the sum of #50million be set aside to cater specially for officers retiring from the service between May, 2019, and May, 2023, with a view to benchmarking the performance of the present administration in the payment of gratuity of civil/public servants.

“In view of this, the need for a modulated payment of gratuity was proposed and this has scaled up the monthly payment of #230million to#235million for the payment of the monthly release for the backlog of unpaid gratuities till the commencement of this administration, so as to keep up the pace at which the inherited backlog of the gratuities are being paid.

“The council also agreed that the increment is going to be reviewed upward as time goes in relation to improvement in the State’s financial power”, he said.

The commissioner, however  noted that payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities have been paramount to the Seyi-Makinde led administration, assuring that  no stone would be left unturned to promote the welfare of workers and retirees.

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The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Senate President, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, said the claim emanated from the Kwara State Government, and he neither confirmed nor denied it.

The Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, in a statement on Wednesday said the attention of the state government had been drawn to issues surrounding the payment of pensions to former governors of the state, especially Saraki.

Gold said, “The (Kwara State) Government not only stopped the payment of the said pension, the amount already paid into Saraki’s account since he left office was deducted from the money owed to him as well as his other outstanding lawful entitlements.

“In view of the foregoing, it should be noted that neither the Kwara State Government, nor Saraki, violated the state pension law or any other law for that matter.

“The State Pension Law empowers the state government to pay pension to former governors of the state.
“The Kwara State Government will want to reiterate the fact that it was Dr. Saraki who, of his own volition, considered the morality of the situation in which the pension would put him since he is still a serving Senator and chose to abandon his legal rights.

“We believe he should be commended for the decision.”

Gold added, “It is the hope of the Kwara State Government that this clarification will end all the controversy about this issue.”

The SSG said Saraki, as a two-term governor of the state, was entitled to pensions as stipulated by the third schedule, Paragraph D (i) of the Governor and Deputy Governor (Payment of Pension) Law, No. 12 of 2010 of Kwara State.
He added that the said pensions had been duly remitted to his (Saraki’s) account, like other former governors, since he left office.

He, however, said that when, via a letter dated August 20, 2015 addressed to the state government, Saraki requested that the payment of pensions to his account be stopped and the amount already credited to the account be refunded to the (Kwara State) Government, the state government promptly complied.

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