Bayelsa pensioners threaten legal action over N3.5bn gratuity debt

By Samuel Oyadongha

Yenagoa— Pensioners in Bayelsa State have threatened to drag the state government to court over the continued failure of the latter to pay their gratuities which they put at N3.5bn.

The aggrieved pensioners warned that they might be forced to embark on a peaceful protest on the streets of the state capital at the end of this month, if the government failed to pay them, adding that they would subsequently later take legal action against the government.

State chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Chief Emmanuel Namatebe, who made the disclosure at a media briefing in Yenagoa, noted that pensioners in the state were living in penury after their retirement.

Though he admitted that Governor Seriake Dickson had promised to effect payment of the pensioners’ gratuities, after the submission of the report of a committee set up by the state government to look into the complaints of the pensioners, he said nothing had been done.

He said: ”To be precise, as at March, 2012, after the submission of the report of the committee headed by Mr. Philip Daunemugha, Governor Seriake Dickson gave assurance that all that was due us would be cleared which was verified to the tune of N3.5 billion.”