Governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, Wednesday said that the ongoing biometric capture of pensioners in the state will end the menace of ghost workers in the state.
He said that the exercise will end the agony of pensioners.
The Imo governor who was represented by his Chief Technical Adviser, Pascal Madu, stated that he would begin the payment of the arrears of pensions three days after the biometric exercise.
He said that he was pained by the stress pensioners go throw in accessing their pensioners after years of retirement, adding that out of 30,000 pensioners in the state, about 14,000 had been captured.
He said that he was hopeful that the consulting firm would finish in a record time.
According to him, “the importance of this is to eradicate ghost workers from our state civil service and to eradicate the agony our pensioners go through in accessing their pensioners after years of retirement.
“We will start paying three days after the conclusion of this exercise. His Excellency whose mother is also a retiree is worried about the pains our pensioners go through. He wants to put an end to it once and for all.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of pensioners in the state, Josiah Ugochukwu, said that his colleagues were not ready to wait for weeks anymore before they start getting their pensions.
He said, “we can’t continue to wait for another couple of weeks, we are running out of patience already, our members are dying, while waiting for the payment to commence and whatever the government is doing should not go beyond the end of this month.”