About 25 former political office holders in Ogun state have reportedly died while awaiting payment of their severance gratuity of about N2billion from the administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, The Sun reports.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State
This indication came from surviving ex-former political office holders who stated that Amosun should take advantage of the recent federal government bail-out given to states to offset the backlog of payments being owed them in order to save their remaining members from untimely death.
It was learnt that only 43, out of the over 700 ex-political office holders who served between 2007 and 2011 had been paid their severance benefits by the state government, while those yet-to-be-paid had been languishing in want and penury.
It was also gathered that those that are being owed salaries were former political office holders who served mainly under the administration of former governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
They begged the governor to pay their benefits stressing the continued delay would increase the debt profile of the state, especially as the tenure of the current local government officials ended yesterday.
Speaking further on the unpaid grauity, Akored Oduntan, the chairman of the Conference of Local Government Ex-Political Office Holders in Ogun State (December 2007 to December 2010), said at a news conference that he and his colleagues had been going through hard times and “harrowing experience” due to the non-payment of their severance benefits.
Oduntan, a former chairman of Ewekoro Local Government, gave a breakdown of the N2billion severance package being owed them by the state government to include outstanding payment of furniture allowance, salary arrears and severance gratuities.
He begged to the governor to settle the “debt burden” and save them from “further disaster.”
Oduntan said: “Let me thank my colleagues (the ex-political office holders) for their patience and perseverance up till this moment, I pray unto Almighty God that very soon all entitlement will be paid. I also used this moment to remember our dearest colleagues who have passed on which at the last count were 25 in number. We pray to God to forgive them and make them inhabitants of paradise.
“It is exactly one year and one month today that our governor paid the first set of ex-political office holders 2007 to 2011 their severance gratuities. June 24, 2014 when the governor was paying 43 beneficiaries, he did promise to pay the rest of us in batches, saying categorically that N300million has been set aside to offset this debt on monthly basis, but since the first set was paid, no single person has been paid again up till this moment
“We are therefore appealing to His Excellency to please effect the payment from the bail-out package just released by the Federal Government. We beg you, your Excellency in the name of Almighty God to please approve the payment without further delay. We are of the opinion that the Excellency has the intention of settling this claim but the money is not just available; now that the money is abundantly available, sir, please consider us. We don’t pray to lose any of our members again.”
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