From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Kano State government has blamed the governments of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Malam Ibrahim Shekarau for the huge pension debts.
The States Head of Service, Usman Bala, while addressing protesting members of the Nigeria Labour Gongress at the Government House absolved the present administration led by Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of any blame in regard to this.
Bala, who doubles as the Chief of Staff to the Governor, recalled that Kwankwaso’s administration, years ago, invested the state pension fund in a housing project, which did not bring about any significant benefits to the pensioners as these houses were currently unoccupied.
He further blamed the problem on the drop in the employment of new civil servants, saying the situation created a margin between the number of recruits and those due for retirement
He, however, disclosed that plans were underway to employ over 2000 civil servants in the state, a situation which would improve the size of remittance into the pension trust fund.
The pensioners had staged a peaceful protest in the state, calling attention of the government to their unpaid allowances.
The State NLC Chairman, Kabiru Ado Minjibir, tasked the state government to commence the immediate payment of the unsettled N30.9 Billion funds and to put an end to the unwarranted cuts in the payments to pensioners. En