The Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Abia State chapter, has denied signing any agreement with Governor Alex Otti, over the arrears of pensions owed them in the state.
Otti had said that the leadership of pensioners signed an agreement where they allegedly forfeited the arrears of pensions owed them by previous administrations in the state.
However, the state chairman of the NUP, Chukwuemeka Irondi, stated that he and other executives of the Union were invited to the Governor’s country home in Umuehim Nvosi, where they were allegedly forced to sign an agreement forfeiting the arrears of their pensions at about 8 pm.
He insisted that the agreement was imposed on them at the Governor’s residence by a former Commissioner for Finance in the state.
Irondi, who disclosed this while addressing a press conference convened by a group, Abians for Good Governance, in Umuahia, further stated that a former commissioner gave them a document and gave them no chance to read it before signing it.
He said; “Our situation is pathetic. We didn’t go to bargain with anybody. I was only invited to come to the Governor’s residence and hear what he had to say about the problem of pensioners in the state. That was on March 23, 2024. I wasn’t invited to negotiate with anybody. Before that time, we had gone to the Governor severally and we discussed extensively with him. In fact, we thanked him for his concerns over our welfare.
“In that meeting, an already prepared agreement was imposed on us to sign. It was imposed because we didn’t come for any negotiation. They arrived there by 11 am and were there some minutes after 8 pm and nobody talked to us. I accosted the former Commissioner of Finance on why the governor had kept us waiting without anyone attending to us. Why were we invited? The ex-Commissioner said it was in the interest of the state.
“But recently, the Governor said we were given a document to go and study for over four days. He also said that we went through the document and signed it but later said we wouldn’t agree again. What a statement! After the so-called signing of the forfeiture of the project, the next morning when we returned from the Governor’s residence, we read through and discovered the rot they put in the paper. We also called the former commissioner on why he brought such a document for us to sign. But what he told us is not worthy to be said here.
“The document was given to us at 8 pm; no room to read it and they asked us to sign with the former Commissioner for Finance playing a bad role. The former Commissioner came with the document, placed it on me, and held it himself for me to sign. I’m over 70 years. I flashed back on why they kept us from 11 am to 8 pm and gave us a document to sign by that hour.
“I realized that I may be in danger if I declined to sign the document at that ungodly hour. Just imagine the former Commissioner for Finance showing me a document and personally holding it for me to sign my signature without allowing me the chance to read through it. I won’t have refused to sign it because it is only a madman who will argue with a man holding a gun. Before the former Commissioner did what he did, a lady official had asked for the letter headed paper of the NUP which was given to her without suspecting that she was up to some game. With our letter headed paper, they wrote that we have forfeited the arrears of salaries owed pensioners. How can they say we agreed to present our pensions which is not the truth?
“We only came to the Governor’s residence to hear what he had to tell us, not knowing that they had gone to cook up what was unacceptable to anybody. How could they have cooked up such a nasty document which is unacceptable to the pensioners? How could they have made such a document without any contribution from the pensioners? How could vulnerable pensioners have agreed on this? No, it’s not possible. We didn’t negotiate with anybody, the agreement was imposed on us.”
Irondi explained that the Union had made efforts to reach the Governor.
“In one of the Governor’s statements, he said we received the money. And after receiving the money, we went back and said we wouldn’t accept the condition again. That we should return the money before we can return to the negotiation table.
“The problem is, which money is the Governor asking us to return? Our legitimate entitlement? No, we won’t do that. Let the Governor tell us the particular money he wants us to return to him. They calculated our pensions and paid what they like to our accounts. They have divided our pensioners into segments.”
