Date: 2017-09-18

The Concerned Pensioners of Kwara State has said the state government has been owing pensioners arrears of pension and gratuity since 2006.

The group said the government was challenged in 2008 at the High Court in Ilorin after which 50 percent of N3.3 billion owed was paid while the balance has remained unpaid.

Secretary of the group Comrade Ayodele Ajibola ýtold our correspondent, "After the payment of the 50 percent, we were shocked to hear from the media that the state government declared it would use the balance for infrastructural development."

On pension payment in recent times, Ajibola said the government was not owing them because some of them were collecting as low as N2,850 monthly as the state government refused to implement the N18,000 minimum wage, alleging that Kwara pensioners were the lowest paid.

Reacting, the state government said through the Senior Special Assistant to the state governor, Dr Muideen Akorede, that the government only owed some arrears of gratuity of pensioners.