BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE
BENIN—THE 2005/2006 retirees of the Nigerian Postal Services, NIPOST, Edo Territory,  yesterday,  shut the gates of the office of the organisation in Benin,  in protest over the non-payment of their six years’ pension arrears.
When newsmen visited the office at the Airport, the gates were padlocked.

No worker was seen on the premises except the protesting pensioners with placards bearing different inscriptions.
Spokesman for the retirees, Mr. Joseph Ekunwe, accused NIPOST management at the federal level of playing a cat and mouse game with them since they retired in 2005.

He called on the Federal Government to probe the management of NIPOST with a view to ascertaining whether funds meant for the payment of their pensions had been misappropriated.

“We are appealing to the Federal Government to allow the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,  to look into the matter to prove whether funds had been released to offset the arrears or if the management of the agency had mismanaged the funds,” he said.

Ekunwe said no fewer than 15 of the 3,600 retirees had died with many others were  on hospital beds due to lack of money.

He appealed to the National Assembly and the  Head of Service of the Federation to look into the plight of the pensioners and “intervene in order to save those of us who are managing to live from  untimely death due to inability to feed well and pay for our medical care as pension benefit will be of no use to us in our grave.”
The Area Postal Manager for Edo Territory, Mrs. Ayeni could not be reached at press time, but sources close to her office, said the pensioners should channel their grievances to the headquarters of the agency in Abuja.