Bribe allegation: Rivers pensioners threaten court action against finance ministry

Brave Dickson

Pensioners in Rivers State have threatened to slam lawsuit against some officials of the state ministry of finance for allegedly collecting bribes from pensioners before attending to them in the ongoing verification exercise.

Shortly after Governor Nyesom Wike lost the 2023 PDP presidential candidacy to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the governor announced the commencement of a verification exercise for the payment of pensions, gratuities and death benefits of the state civil service.

Confirming the threat to our correspondent, the vice chairman of the state contributory pensioners, Eke Samuel said the leadership of the state pensioners will meet on Friday, August 5 to deliberate on the legal action they will press on some officials of the state ministry of finance.

“We have been told by our colleagues who have done their verification exercise that some officials of the state ministry of finance collected money from them ranging from N100, 000 and above before the cheques for their gratuities, death benefits or pensions were issued to them.

“We will not allow this time of corruption to continue because it is going to cause problems that will destroy our opportunity to get our long awaited pensions, gratuities or death benefits,” he said.