Follow Us on Google
From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
A retired director in the Abia civil service, Ogbonnaya Akoma has sent a Save Our Soul (SoS) message to Governor Alex Otti over unpaid pension arrears.
In a statement, Akoma, 66, who was retired as a director of environmental health in 2015, said, “I was among the director-scapegoats prematurely retired by the then Gov Theodore Orji in 2015 as a result of disagreement between him and his political god-father, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.”
Akoma complained that 19 months after other pensioners in the state were paid their pension arrears, the state Government has refused to pay his own.
He said all efforts he has made to correct the anormaly fell on deaf ears despite the fact that the cause of the non payment emanated from the misconduct and dereliction of duty on the part of some Government officials.
“What happened was that during the compilation of the names of Abia pensioners, the compilers had written my name correctly, allotted me verification number as other pensioners and listed my bank correctly.”
Other News
The retiree said the Government officials mistakingly allotted him the bank account of another civil servant, which he said made him to be skipped when others were paid.
“That grave mistake made by Government officials caused me a lot of hassles and drained me dry because I had to travel from Arochukwu to Umuahia 29 times in 2023 before the mistake was rectified, but not before pension arrears were paid to other verified pensioners in the state.
Akoma who claimed he is being owed about N4m unpaid pension arrears, said he needed the money to take care of his failing health.
“I direly need the money now to enable to me seek urgent medical attention for my outstanding and insidious ailments that torment me now.
“I could not buy the medicines and other medical prescriptions that were made to me for my cardio-vascular and heart problems at FMC, Umuahia, while Abia State Government continues to owe me my pension arrears. This is totally a misnomer.
Akoma appealed to the Governor to direct relevant officials of Government to pay his pension arrears to save his life.
