Pay Us Our Arrears, Gratuities, Pensioners tell Gov Obaseki

Aggrieved pensioners in Edo State on Thursday staged protests on the streets of Benin City, the state capital demanding the pay­ment of the arrears of their sti­pends and gratuities.
They told Governor Godwin Obaseki to act fast on their de­mands because they were pass­ing through the worst phase of their lives.
The pensioners, who came from the 18 local government areas in the state, displayed placards with various inscrip­tions. They called on Governor Obaseki to comply with the Federal Government’s directive on using the Paris Club refund to settle outstanding stipends.

Their Spokesman, Mr Egbon Osamwonyi, expressed dismay over the unpaid arrears run­ning into about four years and urged the state government to harmonise all pension incre­ments for the state and local government pensioners.
Osamwonyi called on the state government to reopen the Pension Board to enable those yet to process their pen­sion papers to do so stating fur­ther that payment of the Local Government Area Pensioners whose monthly stipends have been stopped for about eleven months now, should be looked into.
He also called for the im­mediate enrolment of those of them that are yet to be captured for their monthly pensions and decried government attitude towards the pensioners in the state.
According to him, “All the States have received their own share of the Paris debt refund and have channelled same to­wards what was directed by the Federal government when the monies were been disbursed.
“Unfortunately, three months after, the government of Edo State is yet to effect same with the N11.38 billion it received from the Federal Government. The government of Edo should do the need­ful. Too many of our members have died while waiting for our entitlements,” he said.
In a reaction, the state gov­ernment said that modali­ties had been put in place to commence the screening of 2012/2013 state pensioners for the payment of their gratuity.