The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State has queried the state’s governor, Hope Uzodinma, for subjecting the state’s pensioners to another round of verification, after carrying out the same exercise several times within a year.
In a statement signed by spokesman to the PDP in Imo State, Ogubundu Nwadike, the party said it observed with dismay that the Imo State Government has ordered a fresh verification exercise for pensioners in the State.
The party said it was perplexed that the state’s government would be embarking on another verification of the state’s pensioners after carrying out such exercise several times in the one year the governor has been in office.
The PDP said such verification exercises have lost meaning, and present the Government as lacking in ideas about how to manage the pension affairs of the State.
“Our Party discredits that system of repeated and unending verification exercises for pensioners in the State. We, therefore, urge Governor Uzodinma to workout a sustainable solution to the pension system that he disrupted and save the senior citizens the harrowing experiences with endless verification exercises,” the PDP said.
The PDP also said it condemns in unequivocal terms the recent invasion of the State Secretariat of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the purported sack of the State Chairman, Austin Chilakpu by a group of people apparently acting on the instructions of the Imo State Government.
The PDP’s statement reads:
“The mob action at the State NLC Secretariat to force its leadership out albeit illegally, marks an all time low in the festering labour crises in the state arising from the serial inability of the state government to pay workers’ salaries, allowances and pensions despite bogus claims to having paid them fully.
“This Party notes that the attempt by the State Government to force the NLC leadership out by other means is rooted in the industrial dispute declared by the congress consequent upon claims by Governor Hope Uzodinma in December 2020 that he had fully paid every worker and pensioner.
“But findings by the State NLC revealed that contrary to the claims by the governor, more than 70,000 workers and pensioners had not been paid from February 2020 till date and for which the NLC declared an industrial action.
“Instead of engaging the NLC on ways to save face from the contrived falsehood on the state of salaries and pensions which had also become their hallmark, what we saw was resort to self-help and the illegal setting up of a Caretaker Committee by the government sponsored mob that attacked the NLC Secretariat. The Caretaker Committee thereafter proceeded to pay a courtesy visit on the governor to pledge loyalty. That singular action gave out the governor as the mastermind of the assault at the State Secretariat of the NLC.
“The PDP is not surprised at the attempt to decimate organized labour and trample on the rights of workers in the State. Time without number had the State governor come public with claims on the status of salaries, pensions and general workers welfare only for these to turn out tissues of lies. Having failed in their bid to hoodwink and deceive the public, they now felt the easiest way out is to subvert organized labour and install a puppet to do their bidding. This action is as despicable as it is condemnable
“The PDP is reassured that the surreptitious attempt to subvert the duly elected Imo state NLC led by Austin Chilakpu eventually came to naught through the prompt intervention of the national leadership of organized labour comprising the leaderships of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the National Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JNC). They saw the charade in the purported removal and resolved that there is only one NLC in the State led by Austin Chilakpu. This is reassuring and it puts paid to all the razzmatazz of an impostor Caretaker Committee that sought to upstage the State NLC leadership and further compound the debilitating hardship faced by workers and pensioners in the state.
The resolution of the national labour leaders to set up a joint committee which shall include officers from the National Secretariat of the NLC to look into all the issues to the dispute with a view to finally resolving them further reaffirms the position of our party on the dire labour crises in which Imo workers and pensioners had been mired since Uzodinma took over the affairs of the government in January 2020.
“The PDP demands that Imo workers be rescued from the huge arrears of salaries and allowances owed them by the State government that had rendered life a miserable lot for workers and pensioners. The civil servants and retirees must be saved from the deceit that had all this while been their unfortunate fate in the issue of salaries and pensions’ payment by the Uzodinma regime. The solution to the recurring labour crises in the State can neither be found in falsehoods and half-truths nor in emasculating and subduing the state NLC. The government must come honest and sincere to workers in all issues concerning their welfare.
“Finally, we note that the recurring face-off between the State government and organized labour arises because the government neither wants to take labour into confidence nor do the needful in the payment of salaries, pensions and general workers’ welfare. Curiously, the same government finds comfort in dishing out bogus and false claims on the payment of salaries and pensions that are in utter variance with facts on the ground. As long as this deceit persists, so long shall the State be confronted with the embarrassment that led to the futile attempt to remove the Chilakpu-led NLC that dragged the national leaderships of workers’ unions to restore order in Imo state. A cordial relationship between the Organized Labour in Imo State and the Government will be more rewarding to the people than otherwise.”
