FROM our Correspondent

Delta State Local Government Retirees under the umbrella of Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) and Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS) have stoutly condemned what they tagged the arbitrary deductions by the State Government from their pensions and gratuities.

They demanded the immediate removal from office of the State Auditor General and his Deputy for allegedly “misleading the Secretary to the State Government and ALGON to believe that the allowances were not supposed to be part of the pensions and gratuities of members as of 2011”.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Pastor Daniel Onosanimoni and Elder Godwin Ekelini, the Chairman and Secretary respectively of the aggrieved retirees in Delta State, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri on Monday.

The statement condemned in very strong terms the outcome of a report from a “forensic expert” reportedly recruited by the Government on pensioners’ affairs who was said to have come up with “parameters that led to the arbitrary deductions of N8 million from each Health worker (CONHESS) and CONPSS of their pension and gratuities by the State Government and ALGON instead of increasing it given the inflationary trends and ecogivenship in the country”.

Also, the statement blamed the Auditor General (Local Government) and his Deputy, for allegedly tampering with their consolidated salaries “which led to a whooping withdrawal of N8 million from each retired health worker and N4 million from other local government workers in the state”.
According to the statement, the Delta retirees, at an emergency meeting held in Ughelli on Thursday, 19th October 2023, resolved to condemn, in very strong terms, the arbitrary deductions of N8 million from the pension and gratuities of their member workers by Delta State Government and ALGON.

The statement read partly, “The Local Government retirees while recounting their ordeal in the last four months recalled how the ALGON in connivance with the Secretary to the State Government, without due process and behind the doors engaged the services of a forensic auditor to re-evaluate the accrued rights of retirees in Delta State by using unprogressive, evil, wicked and unconstitutional parameters to re-work their pensions and gratuities which led to the removal of N4 million from each of their members. This is, despite the existence and current use of a well-prepared document by BA Adigun and Associates in the custody of the Bureau of Local Government Pensions and approved by the Delta State Government and Pencom since 2011.

“The retirees blamed the forensic expert for coming up with parameters that led to the reduction in their total emolument instead of an increase in views of the inflationary trends and economic hardship in the country.

“They particularly blamed the Auditor General (Local Government) and his Deputy, for tampering with their consolidated salary, which led to a whooping withdrawal of N8 million from each member of the retirees.

“It is instructive to say that when a salary structure is consolidated, all the allowances like Transport, Housing, Rent, etc are consolidated with it and it can not be unbundled.

“The Consolidated salary is a creation of the Constitution and so, no one has the right or power to tamper with it. The Consolidated Salary was approved by the Salary and Wages Commission. As the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, in Chapter VI, Part II, Section 210, Subsection (1) says subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, the right of a person in the public service of the state to receive pension or gratuity shall be regulated by law.

“(2) Any benefit to which a person is entitled by or under such law as referred to in subsection (1) of this section shall not be “withheld” or “altered” to his disadvantage except to such extent as is permissible under any law.

“So, the Constitution says No person has the power to alter or remove or withhold any retiree pension without a law permitting him, to do so.

“So, what gave right or power to the Auditor General and his Deputy to remove a whooping N8 million from each retiree’s pension and gratuity?

“The deputy Auditor General had boasted in one of the Stakeholders meetings with the SSG on 1st September 2023 of how he traveled to the Salary and Wages Commission, Abuja, to make inquiries on how to unbundle the Consolidated Salaries of Health Workers but was unable to do so but has now decided to the back door, using the instrumentality of his office to cut and remove the lawful entitlements of the Medical and Health Workers. This is an illegality, as the office of the Auditor General does not have the power to slash, cut, or remove from the emoluments of workers or retirees.

“It is pertinent to note that while we were in service, humongous personal income taxes were paid by our members based on our consolidated salaries that were consolidated, which yielded so much revenue to the State Government. When our income taxes were yielding some revenue to the State Government, the Auditor General did not raise eyebrows. Why would the Auditor General now decide to deprive us of our lawful rights and benefits?

“Secondly, the accrued rights that are now a subject of dispute were monies that accrued to us before 2011 when we were still in the service and entitled to transport housing, and rent allowances and continued to enjoy them till 2019 and 2020 when we retired. If the Auditor General is allowed to remove, cut, or slash them off, what happens to the same transport, housing, and rent allowances that we continued to enjoy from 2011 to 2019 and 2020 when we eventually retired? Shall we be asked to pay them back? The Auditor General and his team acted in error by assuming that we retired in 2011.

“This is what happens when we allow our sense of judgment to be beclouded by envy and avarice.

“The Local Government retirees are therefore demanding that the deductions arbitrarily removed from their pension and gratuities be reinstated and direct the Bureau of Local Government Pensions to pay the balance of the deductions to the affected retirees.

“They also demanded the immediate removal from office of the Auditor General and the deputy for misleading the Secretary to the State Government and ALGON to believe that the allowances were not supposed to be part of the pensions and gratuities of our members as of 2011”.