Lorine Emenike
Pensioners under the contributory pension scheme have debunked allegations that they refused to embark on the biometric exercise initiated by the state government to authenticate the number of persons who have retired from the state civil service.
The retirees who had been staging series of protest since 2016 said the state government is owing them 40 months of unpaid pension allowance.
The coordinator of Retirees under the contributory pension scheme, Lucky Ati, during a peaceful protest the pensioners staged to the pension board, said the pensioners had come to find out when the board intends to refund the monies deducted from their accounts while still in service and also to find out when the board intends to call them for Biometrics.
He said only 800 persons have been captured and over 3000 retirees are yet to be captured in the Biometric exercise before it was abruptly stopped.
Lucky Ati said over 4000 retirees under the contributory pension scheme are currently suffering due to government delays in streamlining the pension activities and alleviating the suffering of men and women who had given 30 to 35 years of meritorious services to the fatherland
But the Director-General of Rivers state pension board, Samuel Ijeoma, appealed to the pensioners to exercise patience with the board as the government is doing everything to ensure that every retiree receives his/her allowances.
He said that before now, the pension processes were handled and managed by the Ministry of Finance but by the Governor signing of the pension act into law on the 31st of May 2019, the act has transferred the pension burden to the Board and that the board has just been inaugurated and has commenced modalities on how to combat the huge pension burden within the shortest possible time.
He also promised the retirees that Biometric exercise will commence in a week or more time so that all the retirees will be captured.
