Ebonyi Pensioners Seek Divine Intervention

Pensioners in Ebonyi said yesterday that they had embarked on a one-day prayer retreat to seek God’s intervention on their plight in the state.
The Chairman of the National Union of Pensioners (NUP) in Ebonyi, Mr  Donatus Okemini, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Abakaliki.
“We have tried every other means including meeting with the relevant authorities, peaceful demonstrations to the Government House, and writing of letters to draw government’s attention to our plight but to no avail.
“We have decided to petition the Almighty God who controls the minds of the leaders for intervention in our situation.
“God can do all things and we believe that having exhausted all human strategies, it is time to bring in God’s dimension to our struggle.
“We have gathered here today for no other reason but to cry out to God and appeal to Him to personally intervene in our sorry plights,” Okemini said.
According to him, government deliberately subjected pensioners to untold hardship by withholding their monthly pensions, thereby creating arrears of pensions.
“If they pay these pensions every month there won’t be a stock-pile of arrears, and the issue of non-availability of funds to pay the backlogs will not arise.
“No local government pensioner in Ebonyi has received the October 2016 arrears while about five are yet to receive February 2017 pension,” he added.
Okemini said that government adopted a policy of payment of gratuities to retirees in piecemeal, noting that the policy was a clear violation of the extant public service rule.
“Workers` gratuities are paid block and we are demanding that Ebonyi government stop the policy of paying retirees their gratuities in bits.
“Our public service rule should be respected in paying retired workers their benefits hence we demand 100 per cent bloc payment of gratuities.”
our cry because this prayer is a cry to God,” he said.