Pensioners protest 77 months arrears in Imo

Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha

The aggrieved pensioners barricaded the Okigwe road as well as the entrance to Government House, Owerri.

Led by their state Chairman, Chief Gideon Ezeji, the pensioners called on the State Governor, Rochas Okorocha to explain what he did with the bail out fund the state received from the federal government.

They urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the State Governor Rochas Okorocha to order.

Ezeji said Okorocha “behaves and treats senior citizens in the state disrespectfully.

“Okorocha derives joy in seeing elders in this state come out from time to time to the streets to ask for their pension.

“What did Okorocha do with the bailout fund that President Buhari gave to him? We are protesting for the third time.”

The aggrieved pensioners said it was wicked of Okorocha’s government to plan to pay 40 percent of the accumulated arrears and gratuities while making them to forfeit 60 percent of their arrears.

“We say no to this latest government’s plan to deny us the payment of 60 percent of arrears up to December.

“As at December 2016, the state is owing Imo pensioners between 22 months and 77 months arrears. Our gratuities have remained unpaid since 1998 till date.

“Also, the government has refused to harmonize our pensions since 2000 to date. All the efforts by the union overseeing the welfare of pensioners have not yielded any fruit”, they stated.

Reacting to the allegation, the state government through the Chief Press Secretary of the State Governor, Sam Onwuemeodo said those who embarked on the protest were not pensioners of the state.

A statement by Onwuemeodo reads partly: “No pensioner in the state was part of that protest.

“Those involved in the exercise were between the ages of 40-45. And we challenge those involved to prove us wrong by publishing their names, their autonomous communities, local government areas, years of retirement, where they retired from and their identification numbers.”