The National Industrial Court has ordered the Benue Government to pay two of its retirees the sum of N26.3m, being their gratuity and pension arrears.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Isaac Essien declared that withholding the pensions and gratuities of the retirees, Mr Cletus Lorember and Mrs Donna Akya, was unconstitutional and unlawful.
Joined in the suit as co- defendants were the Benue State Attorney General and commissioner for Justice and the state Pension Commission
The money as ordered by the court to be paid to the claimants is the sum of N12.2m and N14.1m, respectively, being the balance of their unpaid gratuity and pension arrears.
The court, in addition, directed that N1m each be paid the retirees by February 28 while subsequent payments will in instalment of N500,000 monthly until the liquidation of the judgment debt.
The first claimant, Lorember averred that since his retirement on June 6, 2014, the first defendant held his pension for 89 months.
He further stated that he was later paid 56 months and the remaining 33 months, totaling N5.8m, were unpaid.
The second claimant submitted that from March, 2013 when her pension became due, to October 2021, she was not paid.
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