Gladys Nweke
Dozens of pensioners have commenced visitations to media houses after series of protests in Port Harcourt, seemed to have failed to yield any reasonable response from relevant authorities.
The cry for help, according to their leader, Mr Lucky Ati, has become necessary as hunger and death stare their members in the face.
Ati, in a chat with TPCN, noted that retirees from the Rivers state government who left service in 2015 have not received their pensions and are being owed pensions and gratuities amounting to over N70 billion.
Narrating that most members are dead due to hardship and frustration, Mr Ati also stated that the contributory pension scheme should be scrapped because the state government has been unable to make its own part of the contribution, thereby making it impossible for pensioners to receive their pension.
He said the state government was owing over 2, 000 pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme in an excess of N70 billion and lashed out at the government under the administration of Governor Nyesom Wike for not making the issue of their indebtedness a priority.
He lamented that even though Wike had been receiving numerous awards for bearing Mr Project for executing numerous projects in the state, he has failed woefully for not remembering senior citizens like them who toiled for over 30 years in the service of the state.
