Governor-Okowa

Jethro Ibileke/Asaba

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State Wednesday disclosed that his administration spends about N1 billion monthly on pensions.

He made the disclosure during town hall meetings held with the people of Ogwashi-Uku and Isele-Uku, both in Aniocha South local government area of the State.

The Governor said his administration spends more than N300 million monthly to settle pensioners in the old pension scheme and also, spends more than that to pay pensions of retired civil servants who were on the contributory pension scheme.

“When we came on board two years ago, we were told, the government was owing pensioners over N30 billion, we have been paying and have injected a lot of money. So, at the end of every month, for the old pension scheme and the contributory pension scheme, we pay about N1 billion on pensions alone,” he said.

The Governor who noted that the contributory pension scheme remains the best, took the time to reel out the achievements of his administration for the past two years, reiterated.

He said: “We will not abandon the Ubulu-Uku road project, neither will we abandon any project. As we are constructing roads here, that is how we are constructing roads in all the local government areas of Delta State. I pray that our resources will improve for us to do more.”

Also speaking at the meeting held at Issele-Uku, Governor Okowa who got accolades for the provision of infrastructure and empowerment programmes carried out by his administration, stated that his administration was committed to empowering the youths to be entrepreneurs through skill acquisition programmes.

While noting that most of the beneficiaries of the empowerment programmes have become employers of labour and contributing to the socio-economic development of the State, the Governor stated that his administration was committed to ensuring prudent management of resources to the benefits of Deltans.

In his speech, the Chairman of Aniocha North local government area, Chuks Oseme, thanked the Governor for the giant strides his administration has recorded within the last two years, even as he assured him of the support of Deltans.