Three retirees in Delta State on Thursday fainted during a protest by concerned local government and primary school teachers’ contributory retirees in the state.
The protest which held in Asaba, the state capital, saw the senior citizens trekking from the secretariat of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) on DLA Road to the Government House.
In desperate bid to have audience with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the protesters, clad in black attires, further trekked from the Government House to the Event Centre on Okpanam Road where Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was presiding over an empowerment ceremony for about 900 female youths.
Apparently exhausted, some of the retirees were said to have fainted, and were later resuscitated by their colleagues.
In their press statement, the retirees said they were being owed over N54 billion as at October, 2021.
The statement was signed by four officers of the pensioners’ union including Mode A.O, Henry Tukpe, Mrs. Ejieh H.C. and Prince Etuwede.
They said they have been denied access to their contributions made to PFA since 2011 when the new contributory pension scheme started.
According to the statement, over 6,683 pensioners were languishing in poverty because they were denied pension and gratuity, and wondered if it was a crime to serve the fatherland for 35 years.
They berated the state government for releasing N300 million monthly for pensions, saying that with that amount, it would take over 15 years to clear the arrears.
The senior citizens therefore demanded that the monthly release should be increased to N2 billion until the backlog was cleared.
They also demanded for a lump sum of N10 billion for the Bureau of Local Government to help reduce the burden of indebtedness.
Besides, they urged the governor to compel the leadership of ALGON to work out modalities with the Accountant General to remit N5.9 billion unremitted deductions.
In the alternative, the pensioners urged the governor “to declare a state of emergency on this pension payment matter for local government/primary school retirees and source for bonds to offset it, for the sake of our suffering.
Although, no governor official openly addressed the protesting retirees, our correspondent learnt that leaders of the pensioners were having a closed door meeting with the Secretary to the State Government, Patrick Ukah, as at the time of filing this report.
(Daily Sun)
