The Sun News On-line

Pensioners of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under the aegies of CBN Pensioners’ Club, have dragged the apex bank before President Umaru Yar’Adua over its refusal to pay their pension harmonisation.

In their petition, dated March 29, 2008, signed by the group’s President, Mr. Patrick Tabiowo, the pensioners expressed apprehension over the bank’s refusal to obey court orders on the matter.

It explained that it found it disturbing that despite Federal Government’s direction since 1997 to all agencies and pension managers to harmonise pensions between old and new pensioners, the CBN had refused to comply.

According to the group, the non-compliance was disturbing, given the fact of a letter of clarification on the matter sent to the bank in 2002 by the office of the Head of Service of the Federation and signed by Director, Pension and Records, Mr. S .A. Idakwo.

The letter stated, among others, that: “The policy of harmonisation is always dictated by the need to ensure parity of treatment of pensioners, who retired at various times with different benefits. This is the spirit behind the policy of government to correspondingly review the pension rate whenever there is a review of workers’ remuneration.”

Tabiowo, however, lamented that the CBN failed to act on the matter, even after the clarification, failing which it resorted to legal redress to ensure justice was done. Having won the court cases against the apex bank since 2001, it alleged that the CBN had failed to obey court’s orders to pay the group.
He called on the bank to toe the line of honour and obey court order. His words: “Consequently, the bank’s management should be told to stop wasting government money to fight government policy and implement the Federal Government Pension Harmonisation Policy of 1997 with immediate effect.”
Speaking on the travail of the group, Tabiowo disclosed that over a hundred members of the group have lost their lives without getting their dues, while many others wallow in abject poverty because of the situation.

“Despite the clarity of the directive by the government, the CBN has been toying with the fate of the affected pensioners by non-compliance with the directive,” he alleged.

Speaking further, he revealed that external auditors from the firm of Akintola Williams and Co. had, in its report of December 2005, raised alarm over the huge costs incurred on litigation.
He added that the firm specifically advised the CBN to look into issues bordering on the harmonisation issue, with a view to reducing cost.

He, therefore, appealled to President Yar’Adua, whom he described as a stickler for due process, to urgently wade into the matter to ensure justice prevails in the interest of the pensioners.