Aiyedatiwa begins N3.82bn gratuity payment to 985 Ondo retirees

By Boye Oyeyemi

Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on Wednesday commenced the payment of N3.82 billion in gratuities to 985 retired workers, covering the 2020 batch and outstanding beneficiaries from 2015 to 2019.

The beneficiaries comprise 509 retirees from the 2020 batch and 476 from earlier batches, drawn from the state’s mainstream civil service, secondary school teaching and non-teaching services, as well as various parastatals.

The payment exercise was flagged off at the Cocoa Conference Centre, Governor’s Office, Alagbaka, Akure, with Aiyedatiwa describing the disbursement as a “debt of honour” to workers who devoted their productive years to the state.

Aiyedatiwa said his administration inherited billions of naira in unpaid gratuities dating back to 2015 but chose to tackle the backlog rather than shy away from the financial obligation.

The governor said the administration had already cleared gratuity liabilities for retirees from 2015 to 2019, adding that the commencement of payment to the 2020 batch marked another major step towards eliminating the backlog.

Addressing the retirees, he said the payment was more than a financial intervention, noting that it was an expression of appreciation for the sacrifices made by retired workers in serving Ondo State.

Similarly, the Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Pension Transition Office, Dr Peter Akingbade, said beneficiaries from the 2015 Batch C to the 2020 Batch A were being paid and had begun receiving bank alerts. He stressed that the retirees would receive their full gratuity entitlements rather than partial payments.

Akingbade attributed the development to Aiyedatiwa’s commitment to workers’ welfare under the “OUR EASE” agenda, while the state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Johnson Osunyemi, commended the governor, saying Ondo was among the leading states in clearing its gratuity backlog.