Osun, 11 Other States Remit Contributory Pension Proceeds

By Ismaeel Uthman

The National Pension Commission (NPC) has confirmed that the State of Osun and 11 other states in Nigeria are the ones remitting the Contributory Pension Scheme.

According to the NPC in a press release placed in one of the national dailies on Wednesday, Osun government was remitting the employer and employees’ contributions to the CPS.

This is contrary to the rumours peddling in the state that the state government has not been remitting its own contributions and that of the workers.

In the advertorial, NPC said 15 states had enacted the CPS law but has not been remitting the contributions, while two states are remitting only the employee portion of the contributions.

It would be recalled that Governor Rauf Aregbesola had last week approved released of N1 billion for the payment of contributory pension to retired civil servants in the state.

The governor also released additional N200 million for the payment of gratuity to the pensioners.

Commenting on the NPC report, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in the state, Mr Adelani Baderinwa on Thursday said, the report affirmed Aregbesola’s commitment to the welfare of all retired and serving public servants.

Aregbesola, according to Baderinwa, has also approved the release of another N150 million, aside the N200 million already paid out as gratuity to pensioners. The disbursement will take place shortly.

He disclosed that the total amount of gratuity to be paid by the government is N350m out of which N200m have been released and being paid, while another N150m approved to be released.

The commissioner maintained that the release of N1bn for the payment of contributory pension and N350m for gratuity payment was outside the normal monthly pension payment to the pensioners who are not on CPS.

Baderinwa said the welfare of all citizens and workers and pensioners in particular have always been the fulcrum of all decisions and policies made by Aregbesola’s administration since it came on board about seven years ago.

He said: “The administration of Aregbesola is very responsive to the plight and welfare of the workers and retired public workers in the state. The governor, naturally, does not need to be told or put pressure on before doing the right thing for the benefit of the workers.

“The NPC report is a knock for the political jobbers who are masquerading as 2011/2012 pensioners that have been fraudulently claiming that Aregbesola has not been paying pension contributions, and even diverting money meant for the payment of pensioners.

“Like we had said during their sponsored protests, those who are parading themselves as leaders of the 2011/2012 pensioners forum are apologists of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) being sponsored to blackmail Aregbesola’s administration.

“The 2011/2012 forum of pensioners had taken to habitually lying in pursuit of political goal than real pension matters then. The NPC report has confirmed our claim. The 2011/2012 forum of pensioners should bury their heads in shame for making unfounded allegations against Aregbesola.

“In spite of the financial challenges, Aregbesola has been faithful to the workers and retirees.”

Baderinwa urged the civil servants and members of the public to support the government in improving the Internally Generated Revenue of the state, saying that the economic resources of the state needs to be improved upon for the government to be able to carry out its constitutional duties.