Retirees protest against non-payment of benefits

Over a hundred retired staff of the Nigeria Bottling Company, (NBC) in Benue State yesterday staged a protest demanding for payments of their benefits. The retired staff had blocked the gate of the company’s depot in Makurdi, preventing vehicles from going out and coming in as they vowed to remain on the gate and keep it sealed indefinitely until their monies were paid.

Leader of the protesters, Mr. Vincent Shagbaor who spoke to newsmen said they decided to stage the protest after several failed attempts to prevail on the company to pay them their benefits. He said that their colleagues from other states already had their benefits cleared by the company.

His words: “We are here because NBC has refused to hear our calls demanding for our payments. “We have gathered as a body and want to fight a common course, a course of liberating our people and trying to get our refunds from Nigeria Bottling Company.

“We were engaged by law and enrolled in the insurance scheme with Crusader Insurance Company Nigeria Limited. But for over 13 years that we have been disengaged they have refused to pay our members what is due for them, that is why we are protesting

“We have some contribution with other companies, but what we are now pressing for is that insurance refunds. More than 100 people are involved though we cannot give the exact total amount of money now because of the variation in what is being owed individuals.“We have blocked the gate and would stay as long as it takes for the company to pay us our benefit. We will leave only when we start receiving alerts of our payments.

“For vehicular movement, we lock the gates and no one would be allowed to go out, but for staff they are free to go in and out”, he stated.
However, all attempts to get the view of the management of the company in Makurdi were not successful as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) who simply gave his name as Frank said they have not been authorised to speak on the issue.