14 Months Arrears: Abia Pensioners Beg Religious, Traditional Leaders To Help Intervene With Ikpeazu

Abia State pensioners have appealed to traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders to appeal to Governor Ikezie Ikpeazu to pay their pensions. The pensioners said in a statement Tuesday that instead of reducing their pension arrears as he promised, that he had rather increased the arrears.

Pensioners in the state are owed as much as 14 months and in some cases like the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, pensions are owed up to 24 months.

The pensioners in the statement also blasted the State House of Assembly for failing to interrogate the implementation of the budget as concerning them.

The pensioners under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, said that they are owed pensions from September 2017 to October 2018.
A communiqué issued by the state chairman, Comrade Chukwuma Udensi and the Secretary, Elder O. C. Arungwa read thus:

“The Council views as unfortunate, the fact that the mass meeting of the State Governor, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu, Ph.D, with Abia pensioners on 25th September, 2017, produced little or no result at all because instead of being reduced, the arrears of pensions has doubled since the meeting. The meeting was at the instance of the Governor and was expected to proffer sustainable solutions to the pension payment problem of the State.
“The Council regrets that since May 28, 2018 when the State Governor met with the State Executive Committee of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Abia State, during which the Governor personally promised a gradual and eventual clearance of the pension arrears, it is sad to note that he has failed this promise.
“The Governor pledged without any coercion or negotiation in that meeting that he would be paying 3 months of pension arrears in every 2 months. What had happened since then is that neither here nor there as pensioners are yet to have a feel of the Governor’s promise.
“The Council expressed profound surprise at this act of unusual neglect and lack of concern exhibited by the Governor and the Abia State Government which he leads, over the sorry plight of pensioners, many of who are facing serious health challenges, other are bed-ridden, while many others have passed on as a result of frustration, hunger and lack of medical care”.
The old citizens thus appealed to religious leaders, traditional rulers, and other leading stakeholders in the state “to intervene and ask the Governor to do the needful to stop the gradual extermination of Abia State Senior Citizens”.

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG