BY EGUFE  YAFUGBORHI

PORT HARCOURT – The planned three-day hunger strike and prayers by Rivers State pensioners over alleged unpaid pension arrears by the state government, has been cut short, hours after the protesters stormed Government House, Wednesday.

The senior citizens, under the aegis of Rivers State Council of Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, had marched to the gates of the Governor’s Office, where they held a prayer session to draw government’s attention to their grievances when the state Head of Service, Mr. Samuel LongJohn, intervened on the protest.

Expressing their complaints, Rivers Council Chairman of NUP, Mr. Edward Abibo, told LongJohn that government owed the pensioners over N3 billion in pension increments between 2003 and 2007, as well as the federal share of retired primary school teachers since the responsibility was passed to state governments in 2003.

Abibo said: “Since several entreaties by the pensioners failed to move government into action, we came to pray in hunger, hoping that somebody would listen, because these old men and women you see are dying from hunger as a result of unpaid entitlements.”

The protest planned for three days was, however, suspended following LongJohn’s intervention, as he appealed for calm and urged the protesters to go home and allow appreciable time for their grievances to be conveyed to Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Acknowledging the government’s appeal, Abibo, who led the pensioners, dispersed the crowd with a vow to resume the protest if no meaningful response was heard from government in the next one month.