The governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, on Wednesday said that he had introduced biometric capturing of civil servants to end the issue of ghost workers in the state.
Ihedioha, who spoke at a press briefing at the Government House in Owerri, said that the biometric exercise would end the agony of pensioners in the state.
Represented by his Chief Technical Adviser, Pascal Madu, the governor said that he would begin the payment of the arrears of senior citizens of the state three days after the biometric exercise had been concluded.
The governor said that he was pained by the stress pensioners go through in accessing their pensioners after years of retirement.
Ihedioha said 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 record time.
He said, “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 pensions 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.”
The chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in the state, Austin Chilapko urged the government to combine the verification and data capturing exercises.
The 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.
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