By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi.
Angry pensioners in Bauchi State in their hundreds staged a protest rally over non-payment of their four months pension arrears and called for the impeachment of Governor Mohammed Abubakar for the lapses to effect the payment.
The Bauchi pensioner last received their tokens in December, 2015 in what they termed an orchestrated but delayed pension payment under the guise of verification of genuine senior citizens among them.
Flanked by hundreds of pensioners while voicing out their grievances at the main gate of Government House, Bauchi, the state chairman of Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Alhaji Abu Gar frowned at government’s insensitivity to the plight of pensioners in the state.
Gar called for the impeachment of the state governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, over what he described as unending verification of workers and pensioners which has been going on for the past four months during which pensions and salaries and other entitlements were withheld by government.
He decried the unending suffering of his members due to
non-payment of the pensions and entitlement.
Alhaji Abu Gar told newsmen at the Government House gate that contrary to the claim of the government, no pensioner had been paid his/her pension in the last four months, thus putting pensioners in unbearably untold hardships
According to him, state government only paid 30 retired Permanent Secretaries and Directors in both the state and local government services this week, leaving hundreds of thousands other pensioners suffering in misery
He expressed surprise over the indefinite nature of the verification exercise, wondering that, “our members are still alive, why does the government take over four months to carry out the verification that seems not to have a specific date to end.”
Responding to the protest rally, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Bello Shehu Ilelah disclosed that the ongoing verification exercise is meant for the government to identify real workers and pensioners both in the state and local government services.
Alhaji Bello Shehu Ilelah lamented that some workers and pensioners have since died, yet their salaries and pensions were still being collected by some unscrupulous persons in both the state and local government services.
Ilelah, who represented the governor, however pleaded with the protesting pensioners to allow government carry out the verification exercise with a view to fishing out ghost workers and pensioners among them.
He explained that Governor Abubakar had already directed the state Accountant-General to settle the pensions by that Friday the 5th of May, 2016, saying, “If we fail today you can take any action on us.”
Following the assurance that their pensions would be paid from Friday, the union Chairman called on members to go back to their respective homes and wait till Monday, warning, “If they fail to fulfill their promise, we will definitely take a serious action on the government.
