Pay us our pensions, gratuities, Delta pensioners beg Okowa /

ASABA—DELTA State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, has called on the state government to pay up all their outstanding pensions and gratuities, lamenting that a large number of its members were living from hand to mouth.

Gov Ifeanyi Okowa Chairman of NUP in the state, Mr Robert Chukwunyem, who stated this at the 2016 Pensioner’s Day celebration and protest, noted that they were being owed three months pensions and gratuities. Disclosing that the 33 percent pension increment approved by the Federal Government since July was yet to be effected by the state government, Chukwunyem said states such as Cross River and Anambra have implemented it with the “arrears duly paid. “I use this occasion to appeal to the state government as well as managements of parastatals/institutions responsible for the payment of pensions to step up efforts in the preparation and payment of December pension before Christmas.” Some of the placards displayed by the protesters read, “Okowa wants to kill pensioners,” “‘Okowa honour your fathers and your mothers if you want your days to be long,” “Stop treating pensioners as second class citizens,” “Pension is a right not a privilege,” among others.

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com