Nigeria, April 4 -- The Abia State Government says it has spent over N9 billion to offset accumulated pension arrears in the state.

The Commissioner for Finance in the state, Mike Apara, disclosed this on Tuesday in Umuahia, the state capital, at a press briefing after the State Executive Council Meeting, ThisDay newspaper reported.

Mr Apara, however, said the amount might still increase because pensioners that had issues during the verification exercise could be sorted out later and consequently paid like others.

The finance commissioner explained that the pension payment covered both the arrears that piled up from 2014 and the balance of half payments the retirees received within the past nine months.

"We had an agreement with the N...