..…Vow To Occupy Major Streets Tuesday Next Week
Gladys Nweke
The lingering pension issue in Rivers State seems not yet to have been solved as Pensioners have issued a one-week threat to the Rivers State Government to pay them all their pension entitlements or they would have no option but embark on a protest.
The pensioners gave this yesterday after a meeting at the Rivers State Secretariat.
Governor Wike during the presentation of the N480, 411,324,647,00 2019 budget on 12th December 2018 said the sum of 33,000,000,000.00 was proposed for the settlement of pension liabilities.
He said that “the challenges about the plight of pensioners have lingered for too long and we are determined to tackle it this time around. Certainly, our senior citizens deserve better treatment than what they are presently getting”.
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On May 31st 2019, Governor Wike signed the pension reform bill into law, saying that the Rivers State Pension Reform Law (No 4 of 2019) will help in resolving the challenges generated by the Contributory Pension Scheme.
He said that the State Government is committed to ensuring that civil servants and pensioners are catered for, with the challenges they faced completely addressed.
But the leader of the pensioner Lucky Ati told Journalists that if by Tuesday 5th November nothing is done by the state government to pay them, they would occupy the streets
Ati lamented that the government had released a budget of over N33 billion for pensioners yet nothing has happened and noted that 4,0000 retirees in the state have been suffering with some even dead.
“It is our right, we are not asking anything outside our right, we enter into pensionable employment that says after 35 years of service or 60 years of age, they are going to pay us gratuity and prompt pension. Between now and Tuesday next week, if the government do not do anything, we are going back to the streets”.
Other pensioners who spoke lamented that for 5 years they have been owed, they said out of 4400 pensioners, the government only paid 800 persons noting that over 4 months after Biometrics was done, no payment has been mad
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