Senior Citizens under the umbrella of Concerned Nigerian Union of Pensioners, CNUP, Makurdi Chapter, has given a three week ultimatum to the state Governor, Samuel Ortom, to pay their arrears of salaries, pension and gratuity.
Chairman of the Union in the state, Mr. Peter Ikyado, who spoke to our correspondent after a meeting with members in Makurdi on Wednesday, explained all entreatise to the governor has failed, hence they are giving him three weeks to effect payment.
Mr. Ikyado said they have written a letter to the state government demanding for their payment saying if government did not respond positively, they would mobilize their members from all over the state to protest, and this time, naked.
Ikyado, who disclosed that pensioners in the state were being owed for 19 months, said they were owed three months of bailout.
He said the gratuity ran into billions.
Furthermore, Ikyado stated that by the Nigerian constitution, they were supposed to be paid not on allocation but by consolidated fund.
The chairman who recalled that their motto said “enjoyment after retirement” regretted that their members were dying everyday due to lack of medication and adequate feeding to the extent that some families practically beg to eat.
According to him, the association loses between 20 to 30 persons monthly due to lack of medication. “Some pensioners are taking N1, 800, some N2, 000 and others N4, 000 and yet we are not getting it. Is it a crime to work for 35 years and retire? What sin have we committed?”
He also lamented that most of their children could not continue with their education because they were owing school fees.
He called on government to pay their 19 months pension arrears saying: “We want to be peaceful in our demands. We have written a first letter and will write another one today. We are not fighting, but we are demanding and if government does not respond, the last resort will be a huge protest.
“We are going to ask all pensioners from the 23 local governments of the state to converge on Makurdi and we will march to government house and remain there until we are paid.”
Earlier, some pensioners who spoke to our correspondent decried the divide and rule style of payment deployed by the state government, appealing to it to attend to all.
A pensioner, Mr. Tyongwa Aondaver, suggested they replicate the Delta State style of protest by staying on the protest for two weeks and not listening to any plea until they receive bank alerts.
Mr. Aondaver, who retired in 2015 appealed to governtment to settle their arrears to enable them live a meaningful life.
Other pensioners, Mrs. Agnes Ogiri and Anna Ogbaji lamented the hardship faced by members saying: ” We are not young people and we need to take care of our health, we need to cater for our dependants, but we can not because we are not being paid.
“I am a widow. I am crying to government to look into our plight and come to our aid.”
