Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha has said the ongoing biometric capture of pensioners will end their agony.
He added that the move would also check the practice of ghost workers in the civil service.
The governor, who was represented by his Chief Technical Adviser, Pascal Madu, promised to begin the payment of pension arrears three days after the biometric exercise.
According to him, he was pained by the stress pensioners go throw in accessing their pensioners after retirement.
He said 14,000 of the state’s 30,000 pensioners had been captured.
The governor hoped that the consulting firm would finish in good time.
He said: “The importance of this is to eradicate ghost workers from our civil service and the agony our pensioners go through in accessing their pensioners after years of retirement.
“We will start paying three days after the conclusion of this exercise. His Excellency, whose mother is also a retiree, is worried about the pains our pensioners go through. He wants to end it once and for all.”
Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) Josiah Ugochukwu said his colleagues were not ready to wait for weeks anymore before they start getting their pensions.
“We can’t continue to wait for another couple of weeks. We are running out of patience already; our members are dying while waiting for the payment to start. And whatever the government is doing should not go beyond the end of this month,” Ugochukwu said.
