The Abia State branch of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners has given the state government a January 15, 2015 deadline to pay all outstanding arrears due to its members.
Chukwuma Udensi, the state Chairman of the NUP, made this known at a news briefing on Tuesday in Umuahia.
Udensi said that the poor condition of pensioners had inflicted severe agony on the pensioners in the state.
The chairman said: “Many of them have died out of abject poverty, neglect and frustration.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that pension benefits are the rights of the pensioner and not a privilege.
“Pensioners are unfortunately subjected to begging for their rights.
“Many of them have died out of abject poverty, neglect and frustration.”
Udensi said that efforts made by the union to draw the government’s attention to the plight of its members “have not yielded the required dividends”.
He said the discussion initiated by the state government on the non-payment of monthly pensions, gratuity, harmonisation arrears and pension increases had remained deadlocked.
He said: “The situation has heightened the frustration of Abia pensioners with Christmas around.
“The union has been pushed to the wall and has decided to react to the situation.
“All we are saying is pay us what is due to us.”
Other demands of the union include the unpaid gratuity accumulated since 1999, arrears of pension from January to date, non-payment of harmonisation arrears arising from 30 per cent, 150 per cent and 142 per cent increases computed in 2004.
The pensioners are also asking for the implementation of pension increases approved by the Federal Government.
They said this range from six per cent, 15 per cent to 33 per cent which, they argued, had been implemented by other states.
They said that Abia State pensioners were the least paid in the country, where a pensioner still received N1,200, “yet is still being owed”.
The union further said that check-off dues deducted from the pensions of members were not remitted to it but were withheld by the state government.
In a telephone interview, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dr. Anthony Agbazuere, said “frantic efforts” were being made to tackle the problems facing pensioners in the state.
Agbazuere urged them to exercise some patience with the government.
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