By Leonard Okachie
The Executive Committee of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Abia State Council, has denied forfeiture of gratuity of members in its Memorandum of Agreement(MoA) with the State Government.
The union said it never discussed gratuity at any point, let alone waiving of any entitlements of pensioners in the agreement.
The state NUP Chairman, Mr Chukwuemeka Irondi, made this known while briefing newsmen on behalf of the committee, on Thursday in Umuahia.
He said that the much talked about MoA with the NUP was a unilateral decision of the Governor, Dr Alex Otti, “based on the unfortunate, selfish advice of his aides.”
It is recalled that the state government and the NUP executive committee had on March 25, purportedly signed the MoA, waiving the outstanding entitlements, including pensions and gratuity.
The governor had in April said that his administration had paid all the pension arrears owed to at least 12,500 pensioners, dating back to 2014.
The governor had also disclosed that over ₦9 billion was spent from the ₦10 billion set aside by the government to offset the accumulated pension arrears.
Worried by this, Abia Pensioners’ Forum, a pressure group in the NUP, had in September called a press conference, to challenge the claim by the government.
The group’s co-ordinator, Mr Okey Kanu, had implored the governor to revisit and rescind the MoA and pay the pensioners their legitimate retirement benefits.
Again, the NUP chairman on Thursday explained that the governor’s claim to have cleared 10 years of pension arrears had no basis in the union’s records.
He alleged that the union was tricked on March 25 by Otti’s aides, to innocently endorse the MoA “on trust thinking we were still on the same page with our dear Governor.”
The chairman disclosed that the Otti-led administration did not clear a dime of 45 months unpaid pension arrears of the previous administration as presented by the union.
Irondi said that the government was yet to pay check off dues arising from the arrears, to the union till date.
“The present administration only cleared the arrears of 10 months (June 2023 – March 2024) which it incurred.
“Of course, some pensioners have not received the arrears till date,” he said.
Following this development, Irondi said that the NUP leadership had embarked on wider consultations, employing all availability emissaries to reach and discuss one-on-one with the governor but to no avail.
“The NUP insists on a serious review of the so-called MoA on the strength of article 7(a) and (b) of the agreement as written by agents of the State Government,” the chairman said.
