Niger state government has released N1 billion out of N14 billion owed for the payment of gratuities of some retirees at the state and local government levels.
The Director General of the Niger state Pension Board, Nasiru Mohammed Namasa said that the N1 billion released by the government was divided into two as state retirees would benefit from N500 million while local government retirees would benefit from N500 million.
According to Namasa, the state government is owning N14 billion for gratuities of 14,200 retirees and N2 billion for death gratuities adding that only 178 retirees from the state level were selected for this tranch of disbursement of gratuy.
The Director General said that the retirees were grouped into batches and the criteria used to select the beneficiaries of the gratuities released by government was based on first come basis stating that the other retirees would recieve their gratuities when the government releases more money.
He said that the state government still owes N3 billion for monthly pension and N1.3 billion for augmentation of pension.
Several of the beneficiaries appreciated the government for including them in the tranche of gratuities.
In a related development, the retirees who were not captured lamented over the sufferings they have been facing and said that they were not satisfied over the explanation by the Pension Board of how the selection of beneficiaries were made.