Members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Ogun State Chapter, have distanced themselves from what they described as “offensive media publications,” quoting them as having accused the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration of neglect.

Led by its Chairman, Chief Kesington Odukoya, into a meeting with Senator Amosun at the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, on Tuesday, the union leadership tendered an unreserved apology for what they called “the embarrassing media publications.”

Chief Sikiru Ayilara, Chairman, Local Government Union of Pensioners, Ogun State Chapter, at the meeting referred to Governor Amosun as the “number one pension payer in the whole of the South-Western part of the country.” He pledged that the union would without delay issue a rejoinder to further publicly disown the media reports, pointing out that he and members of his union had already collected their pension for the month of November 2015.

Odukoya stated: “I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity for this meeting. To be honest with you, I was asking my state EXCO where the media publication against you and your government came from. We distance ourselves totally from it. We do not know anything about it. And we are sorry about the embarrassment it caused you.

“You have been paying our pensions regularly and accurately. It is on record that in the whole of the South-West, you are the No. 1 Pension payer. I have asked the Secretary of our union to issue a rejoinder to publicly disown that embarrassing report.”

Responding, Senator Amosun said that the state government had at no time stopped the monthly Joint Account Allocation Committee meeting (JAAC) contrary to the rumours being peddled around.

The governor noted that the present administration had since inception spent about N40b to pay pensions and clear backlogs of gratuities.

Governor Amosun added that the people most affected by the gratuity backlog were those who retired between November 2011 and January 2012 which has the largest number of pensioners in the state.

“When we came on board, the state was making about N10m daily but we now have a target of N400m daily. In terms of statutory Federal allocation, we are 29th on the log but we are 2nd to Lagos in terms of internally generated revenue,” the Governor said.

“We have paid about N40b to clear the backlogs of pensions and arrears since the inception of our administration. We have November 2011 to January 2012 which has the larger share of pensioners. Once these months are settled, other months are meagre for us to clear,” he added.

The Amosun administration has repeatedly explained that it inherited several months backlog of pensions and gratuities from the previous administration and has since gone ahead to clear them.

•Photo shows Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (4th left), Chairman, Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Chief Kesington Odukoya (4th right), Secretary of the union, Dr. Bola Lawal (3rd right), Chairman, Local Government Pensioners Union, Chief Sikiru Ayilara (left), and other members of the union during a meeting with the governor at his Oke-Mosan office, Abeokuta, on Tuesday.

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