BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

MISTER Timothy Dumbiri Akpede, an 84-year-old blind pensioner served Nigeria in various capacities before retirement. He served the nation as an athlete, a councilor and a teacher before retiring on December 31, 1984.

As an athlete, he represented the defunct Mid-Western Region which makes up the present Edo and Delta states, in the All Nigeria Athletic Competition that took place at the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan in 1958 during his school days and as a teacher in Warri, he was appointed into the Warri Urban District Council as a councilor between 1963 and 1965.

The octogenarian pensioner, a native of Ute Opku in Ika North-East local government area of Delta State, served as Head of several primary schools in the defunct Bendel State, the last being Azagba Primary School, Otolokpo in Ika North-East local government before transferring his service to Ede Grammar, Umunede,  where he eventually retired in 1984.

After his retirement, Mr. Akpede was appointed a Supervisory Councilor in the defunct Ika local government council where he served the people of Ika diligently leading to his election as Deputy Chairman to Hon. Bernard Aziken in the same defunct Ika Local Government Council.

His early post retirement life was without many problems as his pension was being paid to him until 2010 when suddenly payment of his pension became irregular for inexplicable reason.

Speaking on his plight, the retiree of 27 years, said he could not understand why he was being owed over 16 months’ arrears of pension by the Federal Government, saying the Delta State Government had being paying its share of the pension, but the Federal Government had not.

He lamented that the Federal share of the pension which was being denied him, constituted 70 percent of his total pension.

According to him, his predicament started in July, 2010 when the payment of his monthly pension suddenly became irregular, saying “I have been receiving my monthly pension since I retired in 1984 until July 2010 when the payment of my pension became inconsistent”,  lamented the pensioner who lost his sight nine years ago (2003).

He noted that he was not paid his pension from July 2010 to July 2011, stressing that authorities concerned only paid him in August, October and November 2011, but that of September, December 2011 and January, 2012 were not paid, making it a total of 16 months unpaid arrears.

The octogenarian pensioner said: “I have never missed any screening exercise for pensioners in the state and at 84, I cannot do anything to take care of myself. If not my wife and children who are struggling to take care of me as well as the grace of God upon my life, I would have long died of hunger since 2010 when the payment of my monthly pension became astonishingly irregular.”

He appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene and save him from necessary suffering being inflicted upon him by relevant government agency saddled with the responsibilities of paying pensions to retirees to pay up his 16 months pension arrears to enable him feed and take care of his medical needs.

Akpede added “I never knew that I would lose my sight at old age and this is exactly what I have been suffering since 2003. As if this health challenge is not enough, the payment of my monthly pension became inconsistent two years later (2010). This is one of the things I am grappling with at the moment.”