Ray Of Hope For Kano Pensioners

Kano state government under governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf has pledged to give special attention to the plight of pensioners in terms of early payment of their monthly pension, stopping arbitrary deductions and settlement of outstanding gratuity due to the retired civil servants.

This was disclosed by the new Executive Chairman of the Kano state Pension Funds Trustees Alhaji Habu Muhammad Fagge while on a familiarisation tour of the Pension Fund Trustees recovered properties at different locations across the state capital.

The Nigeria Union of Pensioners in Kano says the state government currently owes pensioners in the state over N43 billion.

The chairman of pensioners in the state, Comrade Salisu Ahmed Gwale made the revelation to the  new Executive Chairman  of the State Pension Funds Trustees, Habu Muhammad Fage.

Comrade Gwale said over three thousand civil servants who retired in the state from 2016 to 2023, mostly within the eight year tenure of former governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, are yet to be paid their gratuity.

“From 2016 to date, over 3,000 retirees in the state are yet to be paid their gratuity. Currently, the state government owes us over N43 billion.”

According to him, the failure to pay the retirees their gratuity has caused them untold hardship. He, however, urged the new leadership of the trustees to intervene.

“To be frank, this has caused a lot of hardship to the affected members. We are calling on the new leadership to please look into our plight to address it.”

In his response the new Chairman Habu Fage confirmed that the new state governor, Abba Yusuf was aware of the pensioners’ plight.

He urged the chairman of the pensioners to document their plight to the pension funds trustees for prompt action.

“His Excellency Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf is aware of your plight, I am also aware of your plight, and I just learnt of a few more from the speech of the chairman of the Union of Pensioners,” he said.

“I promised that I will do everything in my power to address this, but please you must document all your problems and submit to us to enable us to address all on time,” he added.

In a separate development the Nigeria Union of Pentioners (NUP) Kano state Council under the leadership of comrade Salisu Ahmed Gwale formally appreciated the holistic approach made by the Executive governor of Kano state Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, by keeping to his campaign promise of providing hundred percent payment of monthly pension to all categories of pensioners in the state,  which has become a reality from June 2023 pension.

The NUP Kano council further appealed to the Governor to urgently set up a committee mainly to ascertain the reasons behind the illegitimate deductions of monthly pension by the previous administration from November 2020 to May 2023 with a view to finding a possible solution and refunding the deducted amounts to all the affected pensioners.

The NUP also assured the government of it’s readiness to work together for the betterment of all pensioners and the state in general.

To this end the NUP national secretariat has communicated it’s resolve, through the Kano state Council, to pay a courtesy visit to the Kano state Governor to extend their appreciations to him as the first governor in the whole country to impact positively on the lives of pensioners.

Permanent secretary to the Pention Fund Trustees, Alhaji Yahaya Nuhu Dambatta expressed optimism that first batch of gratuity settlement night be effected by the first one hundred days of governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf’s tenure or immediately after to show the seriousness with which the administration take pensioners problems.

Recall that Governor Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf approved the appointment of Alhaji Habu Muhammad Fagge as Executive Chairman, of the State Pension Board of Trustee among his first set of appointments and directed for handing and taking over within  24 hours because of his concern with the precarious condition the state Pensioners were in.

Alhaji Habu Fagge, a graduate of BSc. Finance from Abraham Lincoln University, had earlier served two terms of four  years each as Executive Chairman of Kano Internal Revenue Services.

He has also served in various positions in Kano State civil service which include director finance, director planning, research and statistics and director other taxes. Alhaji Habu Fagge has been in the Financial and tax administration sector in Kano state for over four decades.