Pensioners in Rivers State have threatened legal action against the state government over alleged refusal to increase their pension as directed by National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, NSIWC.
The retired civil servants under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, Rivers State chapter, claimed that after the directive by NSIWC it was only Rivers State that has not implemented the directive .
NUP noted that after NSIWC directed states to upgrade the pension of their retirees in 1999, for over 15 years, the state has not given attention to the directive.
Speaking in Port Harcourt after their congress, Chairman of the state NUP, Edward Festus-Abido, issued a two-month ultimatum to the state government to pay off all outstanding entitlements or face legal action.
Festus-Abido noted that within the 15 years the state government failed to comply, the outstanding amount has risen to over N50 billion. He threatened that if the government did not clear the accrued amount till ending of March, the body would drag the state government to an industrial court.
The Rivers NUP boss also threatened that members would embark on mass protest if the state Governor, Nyesom Wike failed to make the welfare of pensioners a priority to ameliorate their suffering.
While reacting to alleged statement credited to Wike while flagging off road construction project at Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government where the governor was quoted as denying the fact that the state government was owing the pensioners, Festus-Abido insisted that the pensioners were being owed.
He stressed that they were owed over four months as well as over N15 billion since the review of pension rates and initial pension arrears by NSIWC have not been paid.
He complained that every effort to draw the attention of the governor to the plight of the pensioners have proved abortive, saying “The Union is very much in shock at Governor Wike’s statement.
“We want to categorically state that the state government is owing pensioners of the state. Respect they say is reciprocal, no matter any level one has attained in life, honour should be given to whom honour is due. Some of us trained most of the political leaders, so it is injustice and inhuman for the senior citizens not to be paid their pension entitlements and be respected”, he said.
He further called for review of contributory pension scheme which he said was not favourable to pensioners.
Commissioner for Information and Communication in the state, Emma Okah, while reacting to the statement said: “We have never had issues with pension in the state.
On the figures they are mentioning, I am not conversant with it, but the head of service should be in a position to elaborate. Rivers State Government prides itself as a government that attends to the salaries and wages of its workers and pensioners as at when due.
But if by a cause any payment could not be implemented, there should be a reason. They should know where they are coming from. When Governor Wike resumed office, he cleared arrears that he did not owe. He is committed to paying salaries and pensions as at when due.”
