Obaro Elelewor, Asaba
Local Government Retirees and Public Primary Schools Pensioners in Delta State who retired since 2014 , now bereft of means of livelihood , recently staged a peaceful protest in Asaba , the state capital , demanding payment of their gratuities and pensions . The demonstrators , shouting various slogans as , ‘ Okowa pay us ‘ , ‘ save our souls’ , ‘we are suffering ‘ , and ‘ we are dying from hunger ‘ , alleged that Government is owing them accrued rights of fifty-one billion naira. According to the chairman of the Public Primary Schools Retirees , Chief (Mrs) Ejieh H C , the accrued rights had continued to increase daily. She said , ‘ as of November 2020 Government was owing retirees 51 billion naira ( value of past service before we entered the contributory savings in 2011 ) , ” This sum is increasing daily and has increased to fifty four billion , four hundred and sixty three million, nine hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and twelve thousand naira , ” There is an unremitted deduction of five point nine billion naira to the Bureau of Local Government Pension by ALGON during the era of non-payment of salaries between 2015-2017, ” As a result of the non-payment of the accrued rights; we , the retirees are denied access to the contributions we made to our PFAs since 2011 when the new contributory pensions scheme started , which implies that since we retired , some in 2014 , we do not have any means of livelihood, ” The current three hundred million naira being released monthly to offset the above amount is grossly inadequate as it will take over 15 years to offset the # 54 463 940 912 . 00 owed as at October , 2020 , not talking as it may stand today ” . Chief Ejieh noted that over 6 , 683 retirees were not being paid their gratuities and pensions. She claimed that these retired workers were dying in their numbers in consequence of hardships , hunger , ill – health , penury, lack and want. She expressed shock and said , ” the humiliation is too much, or is it a crime to serve one’s fatherland ? ” . Mrs Ejieh , in a press statement cosigned by Prince Etuwede G U, secretary, primary School retirees ; Mode H O , chairman, local government retirees and Sir Henry Tukpe , secretary, local government retirees ; demanded an increase in monthly Local Government Bureau allocation to #2b untill the backlog is cleared. The demonstrators added that a lump sum of #10b should be provided for the Bureau to reduce burden of indebtedness to retirees as was being done by other states in Nigeria. The protesters also appealed to Gov Ifeanyi Okowa to compel ALGON to work out modality with the Accountant General to remit the #5.5b unremitted deductions that accrued to the Bureau during the era of non-payment of salaries between 2025-2017. They also demanded that Government should declare a state of emergency on this pension payment and source for bonds to offset it .
