Imo pensioners seek divine intervention over unpaid arrears

Aggrieved pensioners in Imo State yesterday continued their push to cause Governor Rochas Okorocha to pay up the arrears of pensions and gratuities owed retirees. The pensioners under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, Imo State chapter, went for a church service at the Maria Assumpta Cathedral, Owerri

where they cried out in prayers to God calling for divine intervention in their matter. The senior citizens who lamented over what they termed the inhuman treatment meted out to them by the Owelle Okorocha administration, called well-meaning Imolites to join them in prayers and other efforts aimed at ensure the governor pays them accordingly. Led by the state secretary of the union, Evang. Livinus U. Ashiegbu, the Union explained that the reason for seeking God's intervention is anchored on the realization that no human being or problem is greater than God since "nothing is impossible with God." He reiterated that pensioners in the state were owed between 33 to 99 months pension arrears adding that the state government has not gratuities to retired workers since 1999. Disclosing that countless retirees in the state have died untimely since the past three years as a result of the deliberate impoverishment of the pensioners by Governor Okorocha's government, Evang. Ashiegbu condemned the percentage payment system adopted by the present administration and called for an end to it. He further advised pensioners to stop filing forms, signing documents and collecting cash or cheque from the government without clearance from the union stressing that payment of pension is a constitutional right of the retirees not a gesture. In his homily at the concelebrated Holy Mass, Archbishop Anthony Obinna, of Owerri Catholic Archdiocese, condemned in strong terms the way pensioners in Imo State were subjected to untold hardship by the government that should protect them as citizens. The prelate blamed the economic crisis responsible for the failure of government to pay pensioners and workers alike on unbridled selfish tendencies of the ruling class who he said want to own fellow humans as property. "Our leaders today commit all sorts of atrocities because they want to become billionaires at the expense of the life and well being of fellow human beings. We look forward to having a leader-servant in Imo State to get things working again," Obinna stated.

He however prayed for the old men and women and encouraged them not to lose faith in God saying that the their coming to bring their plight before God on the Pentecost Sunday would cause

This post was syndicated from Nigerian Pilot News.