Pensioners Protest Non-Payment Of Pension Arrears

No fewer than 500 mem
bers of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP),Oyo State chapter, on Wednesday protested the non-payment of their pension arrears by the state.
The protest followed the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum given by the pensioners to the state during which the state failed to meet up with their eight-point demand.
Our source gathered that the pensioners matched from their office to the Agodi Secretariat in Ibadan, calling on Gov. Abiola Ajimobi to pay them.
The pensioners carried placards with various inscriptions as : “Ajimobi, Pay Us Our Pension Arrears”, “Ajimobi, We Are Hungry,” and “Oyo Pensioners Are Starving.”
The pensioners were demanding for an immediate payment of the February to June, 2015 pension arrears, payment of gratuity and increased funding to the state Ministry of Establishment to enhance the payment of their gratuities.
The other demands include: the payment of arrears of six per cent pension increase, the immediate re-instatement of pensioners whose names were missing from the payroll.
They were also demanding for the implementation of new pension scheme for workers forcefully retired in 2002.
Speaking on the issue, the Chairman of the pensioners, Alhaji Ganiyu Azeez, who was represented by his vice, Mr. Gbade Akande, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the matter.
“Only a bail-out by the Federal Government and concerted effort by the state government to improve on its IGR can alleviate our sufferings,” Azeez said.
He, however, said that in an event where presidential intervention might not immediately solve the crisis, the governor should put in motion modalities by which the arrears would be fixed.