Abia Governor Orders Payment of April Salary Arrears, June Pensions
BY BENJAMIN KALU, UMUAHIA
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, has directed the immediate payment of April salary arrears owed to civil servants in the state by the immediate past administration in the State.
Governor Otti also ordered the payment of June pensions to pensioners, some of whom were being owed upwards of 50 months by the former administration of Okezie Ikpeazu.
The payments are in fulfillment of his campaign promises not to owe pensioners and those in service and to clear all outstanding verified debts.
The Governor gave the directive on Monday after a meeting of the Executive Council which had the Deputy Governor, Engr Ikechukwu Emetu, the 16 newly appointed Commissioners, the Accountant General and other senior Government functionaries in the State in attendance.
Dr. Otti directed the Accountant General to ensure that both the April 2023 salary arrears and the June pension are paid before the end of the week, despite the ongoing verification of pensioners and workers in the government payroll.
According to him, I know government will be losing money by making these payments since verifications of workers and pensioners are still going on. So far, we have unearthed a lot of ghost names in our payroll but I also know there are a lot of genuine names there.
“What we are doing by making these payments, especially as it relates to pensioners, is to help mitigate the sufferings of genuine pensioners, who are mostly elderly and sickly and have, had to endure untold hardship for so long now,” Governor Otti stated, while explaining the reason for this decision.
