Dr Kingsley Emu
By John Egie
Our attention has been drawn to remarks credited to the Secretary to the Delta State Government, Dr Kingsley Emu as published by Ndokwa Vanguard, who in an attempt to extricate himself from complicity in the controversy surrounding the payment and audacious fraudulent deductions of humungous amount of money from the gratuities of pensioners in Delta State said he had no connection to the allegation.
Dr Emu’s denial of involvement in the plot to fraudulently carry out the deductions is comical in the face of a conspiracy theory in public glare.
The retirees/pensioners point accusing finger directly at the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Dr Kingsley Emu for being complicit in the gang up led by immediate past ALGON Chairman, Hon Victor Ebonka to shortchange them.
They consider Kingsley Emu as the arrow head of a group of political actors all linked by ethnic bond who in connivance with some professionals played key roles to execute their mentor’s vendetta on retirees for crying out loud to oppression.
This was the message leaders of groups representing retirees/pensioners in Delta State echoed during a talk show aired by KPOKO FM radio, Warri recently.
But for Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, they believe they would all have been dead, and for the governor’s intervention they remain grateful and thankful.
And here is the trigger; the retirees laid a curse on immediate past governor of Delta State, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa that he would fail in his vice presidential ambition if he continued to withhold their gratuities. Okowa did not budge, and after all efforts and political maneuvering, Okowa failed.
In vengeance, after Governor Sheriff Oborevwori came to the rescue, Okowa mentees led by Dr Kingsley Emu conspired to punish the retirees and hatched the plot of deductions from their gratuities. And they did, concomitantly to sabotage and discredit the goodwill of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori.
Background to the story
It must be recalled that the payment of gratuities to retired workers of local governments and public primary school teachers in Delta state had seamlessly flowed until Dr Ifeanyi Okowa took reins as Governor of Delta State and thereon, since June 1, 2015, retirees in the State were no longer at ease.
Agitations by the retirees protesting non payment of overdue gratuities were marked by series of demonstrations embarked by the senior citizens in the streets of Asaba and under the scorching sun or the downpour of rains. Dr Ifeanyi Okowa remained adamant and indifferent to the plight of the retirees throughout until he left office in 2023.
It must be noted that at that time, the sitting governor, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori was the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly and can testify to the agitations because the Delta State House of Assemly Complex Gate was the ground of one of the protests and official representatives from his office addressed the protesters and took written complaints of the retirees to him. But since he was not the governor he could do nothing.
When the time of campaign for the 2023 election year came the retires pressed on with the agitations and Governor Sheriff being the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) pledged to pay off the backlog of debts owed the retirees if he won the election. The PDP won and the senior citizens became hopeful.
By August 2023, two months after Governor Sheriff Oborevwori took office he showed interest in the retirees’ plight and seeking ways to resolve the problem used the instrumentality of State to guarantee a N40 billion loan to ALGON to commence payment of the gratuities of the State retirees. Recall that before this time retirees’ death toll hiked for lack of money to take care of their feeding and health challenges.
The retirees were conversant with the figures of their expected gratuities when the payment would begin having compared notes with their colleagues who got paid up to June 2016. So when the payment was to commence for those in July 2016, as at August 2023, seven solid years after retirement, plans were made by the supposed beneficiaries most of who were yet to own or complete their homes before retirement.
The August date seemed not to be feasible and rumours started making the round that state government was up to something funny. Leadership of the retirees’ groups put pressure on the government and in the process learnt that the delay was because government was carrying out a screening process to weed out ghost retirees from the beneficiaries list. It was later learnt that the proposed screening exercise was a mere ploy by the government agents to slash the gratuities to the tune of N4million from the gratuities of each retiree before commencing the payment and therefore the senior citizens, once more, geared towards embarking on 12th protest march in the streets of Asaba to sensitize the public to the evil design.
Investigation had earlier revealed that the Bureau of Local Government Pensions was set with records and prepared the normal payment voucher according to B.A. Adigun’s Template as soon as the governor, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori stepped into the matter and guaranteed the N4Obillion loan. But they were later ordered to jettison that template until a new one was concocted from SSG’s Office.
To avoid the peaceful protest planned by the retirees the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Kingsley Emu on Friday, September 1, 2023 convened a meeting of stakeholders including leaders of the retirees’ groups, officials of Bureau of Local Government Pensions, and the Auditor General (LG), ALGON, and labour leaders at his office in Asaba.
Also present at the meeting was the Consultant engaged by ALGON that produced a new payment template for the payment of gratuities.
During the meeting Dr Kingsley Emu sufficiently bullied and intimidated the senior citizens and called the bluff on them to accept what they would be given saying the retirees resort to protest had no negative impact on the government and that they could go to hell for all he cared if they do not cooperate with the new arrangement on ground.
After raining insults on the senior citizens Dr Kingsley Emu stormed out of the meeting believing he had bullied and intimidated the retirees to submission.
Leaders of the retires’ groups argued frantically on the need to remain steadfast to the B.A. Adigun’s payment template which had ran since 2011 when the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) began. When it became obvious that ALGON and the state government officials had made up their mind on the illegal deductions, a representative of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) from Abuja advised the retirees to take whatever they were given and fight on later for the difference.
It should be noted that throughout the meeting the Consultant who in concert with then ALGON Chairman, Hon Victor Ebonka tinkered with the senior citizens’ accrued rights never spoke a word. Representatives of the office of the Auditor General (LG) and the State Accountant General gave assurance of security of the retirees’ gratuities after reconciling the new template produced by ALGON engaged Consultant.
When eventually the payment commenced in December 2023, the retirees were disappointed as their take home fell short of between N2million and N8million.
Again, it must be recalled that the level of indebtedness of the State Government regarding the payment of gratuities up to Year 2020 stood at N56billion and when Governor Sheriff Oborevwori stepped in to settle the debt, ALGON through Hon Victor Ebonka said they could sort it out with N40billion. And you know what, they did not only mislead the governor but went ahead to use that insufficient fund to pay for up to March 2023; settled over N56billion debt with N40billion, and therefore reason for the variation of the gratuities paid and the decline of the sum as the payment progressed to 2023 is not farfetched.
This is the ugly situation that prompted the retirees to go to press and tell the public of the reality on ground since politicians were already counting the payment of gratuities as one of the laudable achievements of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori who indeed meant to give a bigger pie to the senior citizens than they received.
The discourse
This is the situation, such that when the SSG in his reaction to media query on the subject matter denied involvement and passed the buck to the ALGON and Auditor General (LG) as key players on the issue, he failed to define the role he played in convening a meeting in his office where he attempted to bully the senior citizens to submission and forfeit a huge sum of their accrued rights.
In his comments as captured by the newspaper (Ndokwa Vanguard) in reference, the ALGON engaged Consultant, Logic Professional Services, and Chattered Accountant and Actuarial, Mr Chidiebere Orji said his clients, ALGON and others who engaged him, “were not comfortable with the report prepared by the previous consultant and the attendant assumptions.” (Referring to the B.A. Adigun Template).
Indicting his clients on the allegation of deduction of huge sum of money from the gratuities of retirees, the ALGON Consultant said the previous Consultant used a lower discount rate of 10 per cent but when they checked the yields of Federal Government Mortgage bond as at March 2011, it was a little above 13.5 per cent and the longest bond was about 13.7 per cent and hence in his wisdom he advised ALGON and those concerned to adopt 13.5 per cent.
He further faulted another assumption used by B.A. Adigun’s report on a future salary increase of 8 per cent per annum saying the valuation was being done to transit to the Pension Contributory Scheme called ‘a discontinual valuation’ and hence did not allow any provision for future salary increase believing that those two assumptions B.A. Adigun made; the lower discount rate and future salary increase were not necessary.
That was how he technically tried to explain away the deductions and justify the premeditated action of his employer, ALGON and others in the ring that were supposed to pay interest for delaying payment of the gratuities for up to seven years and would still be counting had Governor Sheriff Oborevwori not stepped in. Rather than considering an increment in correspondence to the prevailing hyperinflation in the country or letting the status quo ante remained, they asked their consultant to technically give a reason for the deductions so that their cause may seem right.
In a different report by Sahara reporters, the Auditor General (LG) who worked hand in hand with the Logic Professional Consultant to effect the deductions, Mr Ikenna Ukpaka held his ground saying the deductions were not fraudulent, denied conspiring with the consultant and his employer to defraud retirees of their entitlements adding, “We only verified what the consultant did and what the consultant did was very correct”.
Retirees do not buy the defense of the consultant and auditor general since it was not proper to change the goal post while a match was on.
They feel concerned that the key actors in the controversy surrounding the deductions are all from the same local government area, Ika North East and political mentees of immediate past governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa who himself is from Ika North East LGA, and there lies the claim of a conspiracy theory to the matter.
Prayer
The prayer of the pensioners remain the same; a passionate appeal to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to in his natural goodness and supportive hand to the downtrodden among the masses that earned him the sobriquet of “Street Credibility”, cast another gaze on the plight of the pensioners and cause the authorities concerned to revert to the B.A. Adigun Template and ensure the refund of the deductions made by ALGON and its co conspirators, so that the goodwill of the governor will ultimately not be brought to disrepute. They say they will continue to cry until they are heard as that is not too much to ask.
John Egie, Secretary to Association of Retired Primary School Teachers, Delta State (ARPST) wrote from Ughelli.
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