UMUAHIA—Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has accused the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, of dishonesty in the arrears of pensions owed them by previous administrations in the state.
Otti had accused the NUP of reneging on the agreement they allegedly signed to forfeit the arrears of pensions owed by past administrations.
However, Chairman of the NUP in Abia State, Chukwuemeka Irondi, who admitted that the Otti administration has been update in paying monthly pensions, denied that they signed an agreement with the state government to forfeit their arrears of salaries.
He alleged that the state government invited them to a late-night meeting where an agreement was imposed on them.
The Governor had, while speaking at the weekend, described the leaders of the pensioners as dishonest people and vowed not to call them to any negotiation again.
He said,” Did you see that they signed the Memorandum of Agreement. I saw a newspaper report where they said they didn’t sign. So, you can see that we are dealing with dishonest set of leaders. The pensioners are honest people, their leaders are dishonest. And we don’t reward dishonesty.
“If you made a mistake, don’t say I didn’t sign, don’t say I was deceived to sign. You went to school, you served through. Somebody was owning them. I never owed them. They kept quiet all these whiles, some for 10 years. And somebody came out to say, I want to clear this backlog and they were excited. I have told this story several times.
“So, once you start from a dishonest point of view, I cannot deal with you. If you like, twist the question 100 times, I will not deal with you. I will not deal with them because they are very dishonest people.”
The pensioners are happy because they were paid.
“These people signed; they had walked away from everything. But I said no, it is not fair out of my own magnanimity. But I am not going to be discouraged because few people are dishonest.”
‘I have investigated it and found that the PDP is behind it, their lawyer is a PDP lawyer. If they are not stupid, why would they hire somebody who owed for 10 years to come and be disparaging somebody who offered to pay. Genuine pensioners are happy everywhere but contractors who feel they can make money are in it. I will not pay, will not deal with them. I have finished with them. Since they have an option, why can’t they go to court? The question to ask them is; why didn’t they go to court in the last 10 years? So, i think we have sufficiently dealt with the matter. I will not deal with it again. If somebody is not happy that he is being paid 100% pensions monthly, he should return the ones that he has been paid and continue wearing black.
“Let’s move on. Two days ago, I read a report in the newspaper where they said they never signed anything. I said yes, we are getting there. Before now, they said they were deceived. Genuine pensioners have disowned them. They want me to call them to a negotiation but i will never call them. They should return all they have collected and declare a dispute. Then,we deal with the dispute, you don’t collect money and turn back to say you don’t agree. It is dishonesty and I don’t deal with dishonest people.”
Reacting to the Governor’s statement describing the leaders of the pensioners as dishonest, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abia State Chapter, condemned it as not only reckless and insensitive, but also deeply disrespectful to senior citizens who have dedicated their productive years to serving the state and are now being deprived of their legitimate entitlements.
The party urged the Governor to apologize to the pensioners and fullfil his campaign promise of paying the arrears owed by the pensioners.
The PDP said,” We find it necessary to ask a fundamental question: Who is truly dishonest? Is it the pensioners, who are simply demanding what is rightfully theirs, or a Governor who claimed to have cleared
all outstanding pensions, a narrative aggressively pushed by his government and its agents? If indeed all pension arrears have been settled, as the Governor once boasted, why are pensioners still crying out for their payments?
“It is on record that during his election campaign, Governor Alex Otti solemnly promised to clear all outstanding pension arrears once elected. However, rather than fulfilling that promise, he has resorted to blackmailing and maligning the same pensioners who voted for him, subjecting them to a fraudulent demand to forgo or surrender their entitlements to the government.
“If this is not a blatant act of executive dishonesty, then what is?”
