Ebonyi State Governor, Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, has revealed that his administration is actively collaborating with the management of Ebonyi State University (EBSU) to resolve the lingering dispute over unpaid pensions and gratuities owed to retired staff of the institution.
​Speaking on Thursday, October 1, 2026, during an executive briefing held at the Exco Chambers, Government House in Abakaliki, Governor Nwifuru addressed the jurisdictional and legal complexities surrounding the responsibility for paying the affected university retirees.
​The governor clarified that while statutory laws dictate that employment and pension liabilities belong to the institution that hired the staff, his administration has chosen to step in on humanitarian grounds.
​”The core issue has been determining who actually bears the responsibility for paying the pensions and gratuities of these retirees, given that the Ebonyi State Government is not their direct employer,” Governor Nwifuru stated. “The law is clear… you cannot fire who you did not hire. However, we have reached an understanding with the university’s management to accommodate these retirees who are crying out for relief.”
​Under the proposed arrangement agreed upon between state officials and university administrators, the government and EBSU management will establish a joint framework to audit and absorb the backlogs.
Governor Nwifuru confirmed that the state plans to begin disbursing payments for outstanding pension and gratuity backlogs covering the 2022 to 2023 periods by December 2026.
​The intervention follows recent appeals by over 400 affected EBSU retirees who had requested state government intervention regarding delayed benefits.
​The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Dr. Monday Uzor, confirmed in a follow-up statement issued in Abakaliki that the administration remains committed to civil service welfare across all sectors.
Uzor highlighted that the administration has maintained steady payments of the state’s ₦95,000 minimum wage and cleared state-level pension and gratuity arrears dating back to the state’s creation in 1996.
​The university’s Vice-Chancellor and governing council are scheduled to meet with state financial officials next week at the university campus in Ezzamgbo to finalize the verification protocol for the affected academic and non-academic retirees.
