. ASEPA boss hails Ikpeazu over refuse evacuation
By Onwukwe Ezeru, Abia
The Abia State Council of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has called on the state government to apply the law of equity in disbursing whatever funds available to it to accommodate the interest of pensioners on its pay-roll.
The Council took special note and expressed sadness over the pitiable condition of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) pensioners who have not been paid any pension for over 25 months now and pleaded with the government to treat the ABSUTH case as a matter of serious concern and figure out some palliative measures to ameliorate the condition there.
In a communiqué jointly signed by the state Chairman, Chukwuma N. Udensi, and Secretary, Elder O.C. Arungwa, and issued to newsmen in Umuahia at the end of its meeting held at Nwannedinamba Hall, the Council commended the National headquarters of the union for the World Press conference held on 7th September 2016 which highlighted the plight of Nigerian pensioners who have for long been neglected and subjected to dehumanizing conditions.
The council, however, called on the National Executive Council of the union in collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress to take further practical actions to get the federal, state and local governments to seriously and effectively address all issues of pension and gratuities in the country.
While appreciating the very unfavourable economic and political conditions under which the present Abia State government has been operating, the council observed with dismay, the discriminatory manner in which the government pays salaries and pensions, noting that while some sectors on the government pay-roll have been paid up to June 2016, retired civil servants and retired secondary school teachers are just being paid their pensions for March, 2016.
The Council in which pointed out that these group of pensioners are still owed pensions from January to April, 2015, however, commended the Local Government Pensions Board for paying pensions up to April, 2016 to Local Government pensioners and retired primary school teachers and urged the Board to keep it up. The Council decried the situation where gratuities to retirees in the state stood in arrears since 1999 and called on the government to take necessary steps to start clearing the back log of gratuities arrears.
The council called on all banks handling the payment of pensions in the state to always properly indicate the month for which payment is made in the alerts sent to their clients for ease of reconciliation. The council also urged the banks to ensure prompt payment to pensioners as soon as the government releases funds to them.
Meanwhile, the General Manager, Abia State Environmental Protection Agency, Prince Ikechukwu Apugo, has commended Governor Okezie Ikpeazu over the recent intervention on the evacuation of heaps of refuse in Umuahia, the state capital.
Apugo, who spoke in Umuahia, thanked Ikpeazu for coming to the aid of the agency and setting up an intervention team that would assist it keep the state capital and other towns in the state clean.
The ASEPA boss pointed out that the governor would not want to preside over sick people, hence his choice of health as one of his pillars of development, adding that the cleanliness of the state capital, Umuahia, Aba, Ohafia and other areas of the state has become his priority.
Apugo however regretted the attitude of Abia people in their quest to dispose of their refuse, saying that they usually destroy the few refuse bins across the state by deliberatly pouring hot and inflammable materials into the bins, which leads to fire outbreak in the bins.
He said that though the intervention team is an ad hoc one and therefore temporal, ASEPA would sustain their work.
He however acknowledged that there were few challenges facing them in the discharge of their duties, highlighting them to include lack of refuse bins and disposal trucks, stating that the availability of the logistics would go a long way to enable the agency sustain the tempo with which the intervention team has worked.
He regretted that residents also deliberately litter the streets with their refuse instead of acquiring and using the nylon disposal bags as provided by ASEPA in the state, warning that the agency and the state government would not tolerate the habit any longer.
Apugo also appealed to the state government to help it acquire more disposal trucks and refuse bins to enable the agency do its job effectively, pointing out that the few ones they have are in disrepair and dilapidated respectively.
In an interview later with some staff of the agency who preferred to speak on the condition of anonymity, they said that the work of disposal of refuse in the state was telling on the workers who now buy their hand gloves and other working implements like knives and shovel by themselves while absence of rain boots and work gear has been exposing them to health dangers, especially guinea worm infection.
The workers who acknowledged that they were not being owed any salaries, used the opportunity to thank the state government over their welfare which they said he does not toy with, pleading that the governor should assist them by providing disposal trucks and refuse bins, as well as other work materials, stating their readiness to “do the job they love most”.
According to some residents in Umuahia, Ojo Nkete, Uche John and Steve Gbaram, the re-emergence of the Isi Gate market would be a big hindrance over effective refuse disposal by ASEPA in Umuahia metropolis, stating that the state government must ensure that the market is no longer in existence.
According to them, the sight of the huge refuse generated by the market people and the manner in which the traders dispose of refuse will compound the work of the agency and as well deface the state capital, portraying the state in bad light.
They called the state government to declare a state of emergency on refuse management in the state and find out a way of turning the huge waste into wealth.