Again, Imo Retirees Protest Non-Payment of Pension

Imo State Retirees again on Tuesday blocked some roads in Owerri, the Imo State capital, in protest of their four (4) month unpaid pensions and gratuities. The retirees had last week on Tuesday 24 June 2020, blocked the entrance of the Government House to protest for the same thing.

The Secretary to the State Government, Cosmas Iwu, had promised the pensioners that the state government would commence the payment of the pensions and gratuities before last Friday. The government’s inability to commence the payment must have made the senior citizens to take to the streets again.

The pensioners have again given Governor Hope Uzodinmma a seven-day ultimatum to pay their four (4) month arrears or face their wrath. The pensioners blocked the Government House and the adjourning streets while singing solidarity songs. They also threatened to occupy the Government House if the government failed to pay them at the expiration of the ultimatum next week Tuesday.

The Secretary of the Pension Intervention Committee of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Imo State chapter, Maurice Amaechi, who addressed journalists, said the retirees were protesting again to compel the governor to pay their entitlements.

Amaechi said, “We, the Imo pensioners, are here again to tell Governor Hope Uzodinmma to pay us our money. It is our money and it is not a gift. Last week Tuesday, the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Cosmos Iwu, said we would be paid last Friday, but the Commissioner for Information later said on radio that the government did not owe any pensioner. It was then that we knew that the governor was playing games with us. We are giving the governor seven days to pay us our four (4) month arrears, and if we are not paid, he should expect us again.”