By Chidi Nkwopara

THE build up to the Imo pensioners protest was very clear to all discerning minds and watchers of happenings in the state. It began with the deafening clamour from pensioners that government should pay their staggering arrears of pension and gratuity.

South East Voice gathered that apart from forwarding their legitimate demands severally to Governor Rochas Okorocha, the senior citizens equally approached the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Most Rev. Dr. Anthony J. V. Obinna, to intercede on their behalf.

Pensioners protesting in Owerri

The cleric naturally accepted the passionate appeal and thereafter, used every available opportunity to give voice to the plight of Imo pensioners.

Archbishop Obinna is obviously not a new comer in taking over people’s problems in the state. It happened severally during the military junta and South East Voice can vividly recall that the Col. Tanko Zubairu issued Obinna a strongly worded query and given 72 hours to hand in his reply.

Archbishop’s supplication

Archbishop Obinna largely ignored the query and patiently waited for the military administrator’s reaction that never came!

The pensioners watched with dismay, how the Archbishop’s supplication, during a recent outing in Owerri, earned him derogatory comments from Governor Okorocha, and the state leadership of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, who made up their minds to protest on the streets of Owerri.

They opted for Tuesday, December 20, 2016, which the government tagged “Imo Day of Thanksgiving”. What probably gave the protest the needed bite was that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the president-elect of Ghana, Mr. Nana Akufo-Addo, were in Owerri for the state event.

Hundreds of the angry and famished, placard carrying retirees blocked the streets of Owerri. Their first port of call was the Orlu Road/Warehouse roundabout.

The protesting pensioners slowly and painfully proceeded to the Wetheral/Okigwe Road roundabout, where they effectively obstructed the hitherto free flowing traffic.

Apart from being the second time the senior citizens were carrying out the protest, South East Voice gathered that it was the 40 percent payment prescribed by government this time, aggravated their anger.

Some of the placards carried by the pensioners read: “Okorocha is using hunger to coarse pensioners to accept 40 percent arrears of pension and gratuities”, “Asking pensioners to forfeit 60 percent of pension arrears is evil”, “Pay the much you can now, government is a continuum”, “Pension is our right and not gratis”, “Pension is the first charge in the budget”, and “Rochas don’t impose your forged letter on pensioners”.

Speaking to newsmen at the scene, the State NUP Chairman, Chief Gideon Ezeji, lamented that the Governor was distributing what it tagged “pension form” and compelling retirees to sign an undertaking to forcefully accept the slashing of their pension by 60 percent.

He described the policy as “wicked and fraudulent”, insisting that government must pay their entitlements in full.

Ezeji lamented that government was owing them pensions amounting to 22 to 77 months arrears.

“All the efforts to make the Imo State Government to treat the pensioners humanely, have proved abortive. The government is now using its agents to force the gullible and famished pensioners to sign the document it prepared,” Ezeji fumed.

Answering a question, the Imo NUP boss described the form as “illegal, unacceptable, unchristian, uncharitable and anachronistically designed to swindle retirees”.

Meanwhile, the state leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has issued a press statement — “Fraud over Imo pensioners entitlements: A clarion call for EFCC and ICPC to beam searchlight on Imo,” signed by the State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Damian Opara.

The party’s image maker said they have “observed with shock, the calculated attempt by Governor Rochas Okorocha administration to deny pensioners in Imo State, their over 40 months arrears, through a well crafted fraudulent means, designed to hoodwink the senior citizens into voluntarily endorsing the forfeiture of their accumulated pension arrears without actually knowing it.”

While saying that it was heartless for the state government to craft such a document, the PDP further opined that “no responsible government will treat its pensioners with such high level deception, just to rob them of their lives, entitlement, which they toiled for over the years.”

Continuing, the party described the scenario as “not only an act of suppression and oppression, but also an evil treatment which our senior citizens do not deserve.

“How can a Governor who claims to be democratically elected, debase governance to this abhorable extent? Surprisingly, while this organized fraud rages, all APC leaders in and outside Imo State, have kept mute,” Mr. Opara said.

Reacting to the pensioners protest, the Chief Press Secretary, CPS, to the Imo State Governor, Mr. Samuel Onwuemeodo, said only a handful of retirees took part in the demonstration.

“We are talking about a state with more than 30,000 pensioners with a monthly pension bill of N1.4 billion. To say the least, we have our doubt whether these people on protest are actually pensioners, considering their youthful age,” Onwuemeodo said.

The CPS equally opined that the Governor had, “out of genuine concern, decided to pay more than 30,000 pensioners in the state, all their pension arrears, to enable the perennial issue of pension arrears addressed once and for all.

Onwuemeodo affirmed that the pensioners have done their own part by signing the forms accordingly and the government is set to begin payment.