Kayode ShopekanPENSIONERS have shut down Ogun state Governor’s Office in protest over N68b non-payment of 10 years outstanding gratuity.
The pensioners, under the aegis of Local Government Pensioners Association (LOGPAN) blocked the two main gates of the Governor’s Office secretariat, preventing the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Tokunbo Talabi and other civil servants from gaining entrance.
The protesters were armed with placards with inscriptions like “gratuities are on sale to pensioners”, “Governor Dapo Abiodun honour your father and treat pensioners well” and “Governor Abiodun, we don’t deserve this worst humiliation”, among others.
State Chairman of LOGPAN, Sikiru Ayilara, who noted that most pensioners still earn N3,000 as monthly pension. described the quarterly payment of N500 million by the governor which according to him would take 34 years to clear all the gratuities as “a wicked act”.
He called for a review of the policy by voting N1 Billion monthly instead of payment of N500m quarterly.
According to him, the association had written 13 letters to the governor seeking his audience to address their demands, and the governor has remained recalcitrant and unyielding.
He listed some of their demands to include, non-payment of gratuities, lateness of pension payment, non-increment in the monthly pensions and discrimination against the members of the association by the government among others.
Ayilara insisted that it is illegal for the state government to be paying their pension through the Ministry of Finance instead of the Bureau of Local government pensions.
In his words, “Governor Abiodun should honour us; grandfathers and grandmothers and direct his personal attention to us for us to meet and find lasting solution to the inhuman treatments being meted to us at our old age, leading to untimely death among us after serving the state for between 10 and 35 years.”
Responding to the pensioners, the SSG, Tokunbo Talabi appealed to the pensioners to be more patient with the government, saying “the government is currently experiencing hard times”.
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