Abia State Governor, Alex Otti.

Abia State Government has said it has commenced the payment of gratuities to deserving beneficiaries, and also resolved issues that led to the strike in Abia State University, Uturu.

Briefing newsmen on Monday on the outcome of the state Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti, the state Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, said that this was following the state government committee set up to midwife the payment process of gratuities in the state,

He said that upon review of records from the State Pensions Board and Local Government Pensions Board, the committee determined the total outstanding gratuity liability to be N61.8 billion, covering both state and local government retirees.

“So if you have to do a summary of the outstanding gratuities between 2001 and 2010, it was N7.2 billion. Between 2011 and 2023, ending May 2023, May 29, 2023, it was N43.6 billion. May 30, 2023 to the present is N10.9 billion. That’s how the total of N61.8 billion came about.