Abia pensioners beg Otti to revisit agreement on retirement benefits

A group of Abia State pensioners has appealed to Governor Alex Otti to revisit and rescind the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed with their leaders and pay them their remaining retirement benefits.

The group, operating under the Abia Pensioners’ Forum, a pressure group within the state chapter of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), made the appeal on Wednesday in Umuahia, the state capital.

The group’s coordinator, Okey Kanu, made the appeal while briefing reporters on the governor’s claim that his government had defrayed the pension arrears left behind by Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration.

Mr Kanu implored the governor to pay the balance of their pension arrears and gratuity.

He said that before the MOA, many of their members were cumulatively owed up to 60 months, while the last gratuity payment was in 2002.

He commended Mr Otti for the regular payment of their monthly pension since April and his effort to develop the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the governor said in April that the state had paid all the pension arrears owed to at least 12,500 pensioners dating back to 2014.

The governor had disclosed that over N9 billion was spent from the N10 billion set aside by the government to offset the accumulated pension arrears.

Meanwhile, Mr Kanu said that the governor was free to liquidate the balance of the retirement benefits in instalments if the government could not do so in one go.

He said that the state government and NUP officials had signed an MOA, in which the government forfeited their pension and gratuity arrears.

He said that the minutes of the enlarged NUP meeting of 11 January, referred to by the government in the MOA, showed that the issue of gratuity was not mentioned.

Mr Kanu, a lawyer, insisted that what was deliberated on was the issue of pension arrears.

He said: “In effect, signing the MOA containing the forfeiture of our gratuity in addition was ultra vires to NUP officers, hence not binding on our members.

“To date, the MOA has remained a secret document to our members.

“We gathered that the state NUP officials had written two letters to the (Abia) State Government, requesting a meeting to discuss grey areas of the MOA.

“One of such grey areas, according to the NUP officials, is that the issue of gratuity was never part of their negotiation and agreement with the government.”

Mr Kanu said that the arrears of pension and gratuity were not negotiable “because they are personal, statutory and their legitimate entitlements in the service”.

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He contended that gratuity was savings from their salary, while they were in service and was supposed to be paid to them immediately on retirement.

According to him, it is unfathomable how the state government could negotiate with vulnerable pensioners, who are deprived and famished over the years.