By BANNERNEWS Reporter, Calabar
The People’s Democratic Party governorship candidate for next year’s election, Sir Arthur Jarvis Archibong has described as insensitive and criminal that the ruling APC has not paid retirees and other senior citizens their gratuities since 2015.
But Gov Bassey Otu in his last broadcast stated that his government will release another tranche of funds in December 2026 to offset outstanding gratuities to retired civil servants in the state. It will be recalled that when he assumed power in 2023, he released N10 Billion for same exercise, a sum described by many as grossly insufficient.
In a video message on his social media handle, the PDP candidate said “Nonpayment of gratuities is the deepest wound the APC government can inflict on persons who had worked for 35 years for the state.
“It’s criminal to owe gratuity since 2015. That’s clear 12 years in arrears.
“They have refused to pay our senior citizens who are true heroes and heroines of the society even with the very fat federal allocations coming into the state every month.
“So many senior citizens are dying daily by this singular act of negligence by the government of Senator Bassey Otu.
“This is not just disappointing but inhuman”, he stressed, adding that his first assignment if he would be elected next year will be to defray the outstanding gratuities and wipe away tears if workers and pensioners.
He also spoke about the non-harmonisation of the national minimum wage in the state, lamenting that some civil servants were still being paid N18,000, N30,000 when the minimum wage had been raised to N70,000.
“My heart bleeds that service to fatherland has become punishment in Cross River State
“Despite that national minimum wage has increased to N70,000, market prices tripled and monthly allocations to our state has quadrupled but pensions and minimum wage has stagnated in Cross River State”, Archibong worried.
