.Clears arears of pension
.Congratulates new executive of Ohanaeze Ndigbo
By Valentine Amanze
Online Editor
Imo State government has cleared arrears of pensions up to December 2016.
The state Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Sam Onwuemeodo, disclosed this, while insisting that the pensioners never protested over non-payment of arears of their pension in Owerri on January 5, 2017.
Rather, he explained that those who protested at the Government House, Owerri on January 5 were not real pensioners but a group of young men between the ages of 40 and 55.
His words: “The attention of the Rescue Mission Government in the state has been drawn to the action of less than 50 people said to be on protest at the Government House, Owerri on Thursday January 5, 2017 over the issue of pensions and those involved in that fruitless and questionable exercise are between the ages of 40 and 55.
“And we won’t hesitate to say that, no pensioner in the state was part of that protest. In other words, those involved in that blackmail are not pensioners in the state. And we challenge those involved to prove us wrong by publishing their names, their autonomous communities, local government areas, years of retirement, where they retired from and their identification numbers.”
The spokesman, however, said that the truth of the matter was that more than ninety-nine per cent of the pensioners in the state had been paid arrears of their pensions upto December 2016.
According to him, the remaining one per cent were those omitted in the first payment exercise, stressing that they are at the moment receiving their cheques.
“The government had long before now complained that the monthly pension bill of N1.4 billion had become too cumbersome for the state government to bear with 27 local government areas, whereas another state with 44 local governments pays far less than that amount as pensions.
Hence, the arrangement that pensioners from grade level one to six should get 100 percent of whatever was the arrears of their respective pensions, while those on grade level seven to 17 would have 40 per cent of their total arrears paid. The idea was to deal decisively with the lingering issue of pension arrears in the state once and for all,” he explained.
He also said that pensioners were at liberty to sign or not to sign the forms to that effect.
According to him, for the avoidance of doubt, the pensioners signed in their thousands. “And in the same spirit, the government released their cheques on Thursday, December 29, 2016. Since then, it has been a clear case of celebration galore on the part of the pensioners especially when the cheques were taken to their communities through the State Development Council (SDC) Coordinators.
It is therefore surprising to see few people claiming to be pensioners at the Government House on protest over an exercise that has been successfully completed,” he said.
Meanwhile,Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has congratulated the former Minister of Information, Chief Nnia Nwodo, on his election as the new President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
The governor, in a statement by his spokesman, Sam Onwuemeodo, also said that the delegates to the election made a wise choice in Nwodo.
The governor also congratulated DIG Hilary Opara (rtd) and Uche Okwukwu on their elections as the deputy national president and secretary-general, respectively, of the Igbo-apex group.
He urged Nwodo and his team to bring their experience to bear in piloting the affairs of the Pan-Igbo organization and pursue policies that would quicken or accelerate the development and growth of Igbo land in particular and Nigeria in general.
“With the outcome of the Enugu election, one can conveniently vouch that the future is very bright for Ndigbo both at home and in the Diaspora and that Ndigbo would not have made better choices than the personalities that emerged in Enugu,” Okorocha said.
He assured Nwodo and his team of the cooperation of the governors in the South-East and added that the unity of Ndigbo including their leaders should be strengthened now, more than ever before, while ensuring that Ndigbo get their due in a corporate Nigeria.
