Ajimobi owes 17-56 months pension arrears, say retired teachers

• ‘Unpaid salaries will cost most governors their second term bid’
Retired primary school teachers in Oyo State yesterday protested what they described as the insensitivity of the state government to their unpaid retirement benefits.

The protesters on the streets of Ibadan, numbering over 3000 were members of the National Union of Pensioners (NUP).

The Guardian sighted the weak and aged members of the union protesting under the hot sun from the Yidi Area office of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Complex in Ibadan.

They later moved to the MITC office complex, from where they proceeded to the Governor’s Office, at the Mokola Secretariat.

Apparently moved by the sight of the aged pensioners, Deputy Governor of the state, Moses Alake Adeyemo, in company of the Secretary to the State Government, Olalekan Alli and some of the Governor’s aides, spoke with the pensioners.

Adeyemo told the pensioners that Governor Abiola Ajimobi was out of the country, as he had travelled to the United Kingdom but assured them of having audience with the governor, as soon as he returns to the country.

However, Chairman of the Oyo State council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Waheed Olojede said the union could not stop the aggrieved retired teachers from protesting the non-payment of their pensions.

He said several pleas made to the Oyo State Government to settle the arrears of pensions, which runs to between 17-56 months had not yielded the desired results.

“You can’t believe that some of these pensioners receive as low as N3000 and N4000 and yet they are not being paid regularly,” he lamented.

The Secretary of NUP, Comrade Segun Abatan, told The Guardian that they have resolved to pursue the issue aggressively.

Meanwhile, the National Youth President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Daniel Kadzai, yesterday charged Nigerian workers, especially those in the payroll of state governments to cast their votes in line with percentage salaries being paid them by state governors in the 2019 general elections.

Kadzai, who made the assertion at a workshop organised for youth group in Yola, Adamawa State, said the Bible taught that whatever a man sows, he shall reap.

“So, Nigerian workers should pay back the governors, especially those of them seeking second term in office or other electable positions by supporting them in percentages just like they were being paid their salaries in percentages,” he said.