No fewer than 9,130 retirees under the Independent Unbonded Contributory Pension Scheme in Osun State have appealed to the state government to urgently release their outstanding retirement benefits, warning that years of delay have plunged many into hardship and uncertainty.
The retirees, who exited service between 2017 and 2025, cut across the state civil service, teaching service, tertiary institutions and local government administration. They made the appeal on Thursday in Osogbo while addressing journalists at a meeting convened to assess the prolonged non-payment of their entitlements.
Speaking on behalf of the group, the scheme’s chairman, Moses Fayemi, said the continued withholding of retirement bonds had taken a heavy toll on members, many of whom had exhausted their savings while waiting for benefits lawfully due to them.
Fayemi disclosed that several retirees who left service as far back as 2017 were yet to receive any payment, noting that about 9,130 people were currently affected by the delay. He described the situation as inexcusable, stressing that some retirees had spent close to a decade without income support from the state.
According to him, primary school retirees between 2017 and 2025 had not been paid at all, while payments to secondary school retirees stopped in June 2020. He added that those who retired from July 2020 to date also remained unpaid, with a similar trend affecting retirees from the civil service, tertiary institutions and the local government system, where payments were only made up to 2022.
The chairman said repeated letters to the government had yielded little progress, as the group was consistently told that funds were unavailable. He added that retirees were later informed that payments would only be possible after the release of local government allocations, with no clear timeline given.
“Some of our members are now in their ninth year of retirement without receiving their rightful entitlements. This calls for urgent government intervention,” Fayemi said.
Reacting, the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, said the government placed high priority on the welfare of workers and retirees but acknowledged that financial and administrative challenges had stalled the release of retirement bonds.
Alimi attributed the delay to complications surrounding local government allocations and administration, explaining that since February last year, governance had been affected by issues linked to local government funding.
He said the state government was currently shouldering responsibilities ordinarily covered by local government allocations, including salaries of local government staff, primary and junior secondary school teachers, as well as pensions of local government and primary school retirees.
“As a result, funds meant for the release of retirement bonds have been stalled. We are in court and have taken steps to resolve the matter,” Alimi said, appealing to retirees for patience while assuring them that efforts were ongoing to settle outstanding entitlements.
