Abia State Governor Alex Otti has accused the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) of being dishonest regarding the non-payment of pensions owed to them by the previous administration in the state.
Otti accused the NUP of reneging on an agreement it allegedly signed to forfeit the unpaid pensions owed by the past administration. However, Abia State NUP Chairman Chukwuemeka Irondi admitted that the Otti administration has renewed monthly pension payments, but denied that it had signed an agreement with the state government to confiscate their unpaid salaries.
He claimed that the state government invited them to a late night meeting where the agreement was imposed.
The governor gave a speech over the weekend in which he described the pensioners’ leaders as disloyal and vowed never to invite them to negotiate again. Did you see that they signed the MOU? I saw newspaper reports that they did not sign it. In other words, we are dealing with dishonest leaders. The pensioners are honest, but the leaders are dishonest. We do not reward dishonesty. Don’t say, “I made a mistake, I didn’t sign up for this, I was tricked into signing up for this, etc. You went to school and served. You were someone’s property. I do not owe them anything. I kept quiet about it, for ten years. Then someone said they wanted to get rid of this retention and they got excited. I have told this story several times.
‘So if you start with a dishonest point of view, I can’t deal with you; you can twist the question a hundred times, but I won’t deal with you.’ Because they are very dishonest people.” The pensioners are happy because their paychecks have been paid. These people signed up. But out of the goodness of my heart, I said no, that is not fair. But I am not going to be discouraged just because a few people are dishonest.” I investigated the matter and found out that the PDP was behind it.
Their lawyers are PDP lawyers. If they are not stupid, why would they hire someone who has been in debt for 10 years to smear someone who offered to pay them? Genuine pensioners are happy wherever they are, but the contractors who thought they could make a profit are getting into it. I don’t pay and I don’t deal with them. I am done with them. They have a choice, so why not take them to court? The question we should ask them is why they have not gone to court in the last 10 years.
So I think we have dealt with this issue enough. We are not going to deal with this issue again. If they are not happy with the 100% monthly pension they receive, they should return the pension they received and continue to wear the black coat. Let’s move on: two days ago I read a report in the paper that they had not signed anything. I said yes they did. Until now, I have been saying that I was duped. Genuine pensioners have disassociated themselves from them. They want me to negotiate with them but I never will. They should return everything they have collected and declare a dispute. Then they can deal with the dispute. I never collect money and then turn back and say I don’t agree. That is dishonest behavior and I will not associate with dishonest people.”
Reacting to the governor’s statement calling the pensioners’ leaders disloyal, the Abia State Peoples Democratic Party chapter accused them of being not only reckless and insensitive, but also deeply disrespectful of the elderly who have devoted their productive years to the service of the state and are now being deprived of their rightful entitlements.
The party called on the governor to apologize to the pensioners and fulfill his campaign promise to pay the arrears of pensioners, the PDP said: who is really being disloyal? Are the pensioners simply demanding what is theirs, or are they claiming that the governor has cleared all unpaid pensions? If all unpaid pensions have indeed been cleared, as the governor once boasted, why are pensioners still crying out for payment? Governor Alex Otti solemnly promised during his election campaign that he would liquidate all unpaid pensions if elected. But instead of fulfilling that promise, he threatened and demonized the same pensioners who voted for him, demanding that they give up their entitlements or surrender them to the government. If this is not blatant fraud, what is?