Alleged non-payment of retirees’ benefits: ICPC clears Osun govt

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Related Commission (ICPC) has cleared the Osun State Government of the allegations that it was owing local government retirees.

Some petitioners had called on the ICPC to prevail on Governor Gboyega Oyetola to pay all their entitlements as accrued.

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But in a letter addressed to Oyetola, dated April 22, 2021 and signed by ICPC Director of Operations, Akeem Lawal, the commission said investigation revealed that modulated pensions covering January to December 2016, January – November 2017 and January to June 2018 were paid to local government retirees.

The letter partly read: “Additionally, full pension payments have been effected for the retirees for December 2017 and the 2018, 2019 and 2020 financial years.”

Speaking to Daily Trust on Monday, the governor’s spokesman, Ismail Omipidan, said since 2018 when his boss assumed office, over N30bn had been used to clear pensions and gratuities.

“We’ve been very consistent in our public engagements with the citizens of the State as far as the issues of pensions for both retirees of the local government and that of the state are concerned.

‘‘We’ve been paying regularly since we assumed office in 2018, just as we’ve been making efforts to clear the backlog we inherited. And we’ll stop at nothing to ensure we clear all the outstanding arrears as the finances of the state improve,” he said.