After years of suffering after retiring, over 400 EBSU employees have petitioned Francis Nwifuru, governor of Ebonyi State, to step in and pay their unpaid pensions and gratuities.
The retirees approached Rev. Fr. Abraham Nwali, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the University’s Governing Council, on a Wednesday courtesy visit in Abakaliki, and made the appeal.
Mr. Emeka Ugwoke, who spoke on behalf of the retirees, stated that members who departed from the institution between 2017 and the present are still waiting for their full retirement benefits, even though they had served the institution diligently for years.
According to Ugwoke, many pensioners are still waiting for the settlement of their pensions and gratuities, even though some of them received partial payments while former Governor David Umahi was in office. This is happening even though they left the service some years ago.
Along with other retirees, such as Elder Elebe Michael and Mr. James Nwali, he denounced what they deemed as the state’s selective delivery of retirement payments, emphasising that numerous pensioners had been subjected to significant financial hardship and health issues in the wake of the delay.
wage components like pension contributions, housing, transport and leave allowances were the only things that the 2009 wage consolidation dealt with, thus the retirees argued that gratuity payments weren’t a part of it.
Rev. Fr. Abraham Nwali, the Pro-Chancellor, responded by listening to the retirees’ grievances and assuring them that they were working to arrange a meeting with Governor Francis Nwifuru so they could find a permanent solution to the problem.
Under the People’s Charter of Needs administration, which the governor heads, he was certain that the problems would get good treatment.
While advising the retirees to be patient as talks with the state government progressed towards a lasting settlement of their issues, Fr. Nwali added that measures were being made to make sure Ebonyi State University was gazetted legally.