Dakuku Peterside, a former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, says the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike is “wicked and irresponsible”, following the peaceful protest by pensioners in the state.
Pensioners on Wednesday protested the non-payment of their gratuities and pension arrears for over six years.
Mr Peterside, in a statement, advised the governor to hearken to the voices of the retired senior citizens and pay them their outstanding entitlements without further delay.
He said the “governor cannot complain of lack of funds, because the state had received huge allocations in the last six years, in addition to Paris Club refund, credits from banks, and N75 billion refund from the federal government.”
According to him, senior citizens have never been so ill-treated in Rivers.
“I was moved to tears when I saw the pictures of old men and women protesting at their age. This is embarrassing and shameful to a state that has enormous resources to pay them all their entitlements and allowances.
“Governor Wike still has an opportunity to redeem his battered image by immediately commencing the processes to pay them. On no account should they come out protesting again, enough is enough of their unmerited sufferings every year,” he said.
Mr Peterside said what has befallen the pensioners “typifies the attributes of a ‘wicked and irresponsible’ emperor, who derives pleasure in seeing people cry and sometimes die in the course of demanding for their rights”.
