Imo Thomas -Umuahia.
The Governor of Abia state, Dr. Alex Otti, has described Abia state pensioners as honest people, but they are led by dishonest leadership.
The Governor gave this unfortunate verdict on the leadership of Abia State Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) during the January edition of this monthly media chat tagged “Gov. Otti speaks to Abians” held at the Banquet Hall Government House Umuahia on Thursday night.
He called on the leadership of Abia state NUP to go to court if they are not satisfied with the memorandum of understanding they signed with the state government on the payment of the backlog of pension and gratuity arrears owed them by the previous government.
“The pensioners in Abia state, are honest people but their leadership is dishonest, we don’t reward dishonest leadership, if you made a mistake don’t say you didn’t sign, don’t say I was deceived, you went to school, somebody was owning you, I did not owe them, they kept quiet for over ten years and somebody come to say I want to clear the backlog and they were happy.
“I will not be discouraged with the game the leadership of the pensioners are playing. I will no longer deal with them; if they are not stupid, why will they hire a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lawyer, somebody who owed them for ten years to come, and rubbish somebody who offered to help them?
“Since I came, I have been paying them 100% of their pension; the genuine pensioners are happy,” Gov. Otti said.
He described the leadership of Abia state NUP as contractors who feel they are here to do business, stating that they cannot collect their monies and come back to say they are deceived to sign an MOU.
“I have finished with them, if they are not happy with what they signed, they should go to court, if somebody is not happy that he is paid 100% of his pension, he should return the one he was paid and go and continue wearing black, I will not negotiate with dishonest leadership again,” Gov. Otti stressed.
While reacting to the Governor’s comment on the leadership of Abia NUP, Elder Erondi, the state chairman of Abia State NUP, on Friday in a monitored radio interview, said that the Governor’s remark describing Abia NUP leadership is very unfortunate, stating that they are not dishonest and stupid as the Governor said.
“I’m bleeding in my heart, I am not happy with what he said. We are not dishonest people; we are good people; we are not stupid; we are seasoned old men.
“Yes, we signed that which was pressed on us to sign by government officials; it’s only a foolish man that will refuse to sign when he is asked to sign with a man holding a gun behind him at that hour of the night,” he said.
When asked what is their next line of action to resolve the pension problem, he said, “If we go to court as the Governor challenged us, my fear is that he will stop paying the one he is paying to our members, and the court action will linger until he goes out of office. We will not challenge him in court.
He called on the Governor to call his officials to tell him what transpired during the negotiation.
“In all the minutes of all the meetings we held with government officials no mention of forfeiting pensioners gratuity was mentioned.”
He wondered how something not mentioned in the minutes of meetings appeared in the final agreement. It only shows that the government officials are up to some mischief.
