The Kwara State Government has said that it has temporarily suspended the payment of monthly salary pension to 6,437 retired workers in the state with effect from July 2022 following their inability to complete a verification exercise organised for pensioners in the state.

The government, in a press statement titled “Kwara State Government Receives Interim Report On Pensioners' Verification,” issued in Ilorin on Saturday, said that the retirees failed to submit their documents to a screening committee constituted for the exercise.

In the statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary in the office of the state Head of Service, Murtala Atoyebi, the government said that out of a total of 16,368 pensioners in the state, only 9,931 pensioners were verified by the committee.

It said, “The Kwara State Government has received an interim report on the verification exercise on the state pensioners.

“The state government contracted a financial consortium in December last year to carry out a verification exercise on the state pensioners as a result of the precarious challenges inhibiting the smooth payment of pensioners' entitlement.

“The Interim Report submitted by the firm indicated that a total of 16,368 pensioners were processed for screening out of which only 9,931 were verified valid.”

It added, “a total of 6,437 pensioners failed to participate in the verification exercise which was conducted in all the 16 Local Government Areas of the state to ease the burden of the aged people.

“Consequently, the government has directed the Office of the State Accountant General to suspend forthwith, payment to the affected pensioners effective from this month (July) until they are cleared.

“The government advised all those with anomalies in their documentation to immediately clear such with the consultant while those that failed to appear for the verification exercise should go to the Staff Development College, Ilorin for screening, commencing from Monday, August 1, 2022,” the statement said.