Imo Government Owe Pensioners Over N60 Billion

Imo Government Owe Pensioners Over N60 Billion

According to report, the Imo state governor Emeka Ihedioha has lamented over the accumulated pension arrears in the state.

The new committee set up by Ihedioha to look into the pension issue, discovered that some of the pensioners were being owed between 60 to 70 months arrears, stated that the overall arrears, which amount to over N60 billion, was part of the financial burden his administration inherited from the immediate past government of Rochas Okorocha.

The governor said there was no documentation on how the Paris Club funds released to the state during the last administration was utilised. He added that he would be compelled to report the issue to President Muhammadu Buhari for investigation, adding that evidence before him only suggested that the funds were misused.

Ihedioha, who disclosed this when he received in audience some monarchs in the state who paid him a courtesy visit in Owerri at the weekend, said that the debt burden he inherited was huge and unimaginable.

“For eight years, there are no records to suggest that the state generated any revenue from the huge investments in the state. No process, no documentation of government programmes and projects,” he said. He, therefore, urged the monarchs to begin to hold government accountable to its activities and programmes in the state.

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Meanwhile, as Ihedioha urged his predecessor, Okorocha, to stop saying lies and desist from peddling rumours through various means, a youth group, under the aegis Imo Patriotic Youths Vanguard (IPYV), chaired by Obinna Okoli, a lawyer, in a statement at the weekend urged Ihedioha to desist from alleged destruction of the legacies of Okorocha.

“We call on the PDP-led government to concentrate on governing the state and bringing the dividends of democracy to the people instead of the political witch-hunt targeted at Okorocha and members of his political and biological families. “We demand an immediate stoppage to the ongoing destruction of public infrastructure in the state,” the IPYV’s statement said.