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From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Exasperated members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Imo State Chapter, held a Thanksgiving Mass at the Maria Assumpta Cathedral Owerri, yesterday, thanking God for keeping them alive while waiting for their unpaid pensions by the state government.
They also sought God’s intervention in their plights by changing the hearts of those whose responsibilities it is to pay them for the wages for their labour.
Addressing journalists after the church service, the Chairman, Imo State Pension Intervention Committee (PIC), Ike Ohaneje, said that pensioners in the state have suffered a lot in the hands of those in authority who, he alleged, have turned their plights to politics.
He accused the Imo state government of calling them all sorts of names simply because they are demanding the wages of their labour during their active service to the government. Ohaneje said that pensioners are not begging the government for money, but demanding their money in the custody of the government for their retirement benefits.
“Pensions as stipulated by the constitution are charges and not part of the governor’s appropriation bill. Pensions are to be paid whether the appropriation bill is approved or not. The usual thing is that the Accountant-General pays pension as and when due. But, now, people paying pensions do not know the extant rules which bring about irregularities”.
Continuing, he said: “The constitution stipulates that pensions be harmonised every five years or together with every salary increase whichever comes first. This is in recognition of the usual impact of cost of living, and it has not been done in Imo State since 2003.
This means that those who retired in the state before the increment in minimum wage were paid less than their monthly pensions. For some people, they were paid less than half of their entitlements,” he added.
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Ohaneje further hinted that the situation became worse during the administration of ex-governor Rochas Okorocha, which used contract staff to run the pension scheme in the state, instead of using the office of the Accountant-General.
Regrettably, he said that Governor Hope Uzodinma adopted the same method, thereby messing up laid down rules.
“You will go to the office of the Accountant General and see all your details, including your money, only to be told you can’t be paid because ‘it’s not in our hands to do so’”, he said.
The state PIC chairman asserted that many of their members have died through one sickness or the other while begging to be paid what they had laboured for. He said that withholding pension’s money is a crime against God and humanity, adding that the Bible even said that every labourer deserves his or her wages.
The PIC leader noted that gratuity is the first part of pensions paid once, to enable the person to reorganise and adjust to new life. He further regretted that many of them were yet to receive their gratuities, including pension arrears of up to 48 months, and instead of the Imo State government to address the issues, it went ahead tagging them as ghost pensioners when their names are still with them.
Ohaneje said, “The most painful part of it is that we can no longer embark on a peaceful protest to avoid being tagged IPOB members as has been the strategy of the Uzodimma administration to divert the attention of the public.”
Addressing the pensioners after the church service, Rev Fr. Martin Edward Ohajunwa told them that their names had been sent to the appropriate quarters and that the Archdiocese was in constant touch with the government on the matter.
He also asked those who were yet to submit their names to do so for onward transmission, and prayed that God would touch the hearts of those in authority to do the needful.
