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Pensioners in Niger State have staged a protest over unpaid pensions and gratuities, blocking the Niger State government house.
The pensioners who were not deterred by the rain protested from the Union Secretariat to the government house in Minna on Monday.
They held placards with inscriptions, ‘Non-payment of pension is not acceptable’, ‘Pensioners lives matter’, ‘no gratuity, no pension, no vote in 2023’, ‘we shall occupy until Lolo pay’, and others.
One of the protesters, Ibrahim Mahmud, who spoke to the Secretary to the State Government, Ahmed Matane, said they have lost many pensioners as a result of lack of funds to offset medical expenses.
He told the SSG that the state government was insensitive to the plights of pensioners adding that they have been abandoned despite several bailouts and Paris club funds the state had received.
“The state has received Paris club fund and bailout funds and we did not benefit. You have made beautiful submissions and you expect us to go home and wait. How long would we wait? Your submissions are far from solving our problems, none of our issues has been resolved.
“Take your time. We are resolute. We are not going back home. We will be at the gate until we are paid out money because the state is not prepared to pay us,” Mahmud said.
He added, “We will no longer accept payment of gratuities on percentage. Our brothers, sisters and parents are dying, we are dying, and we have no money to feed our families, pay rent or treat ourselves when we are sick.
“The government has abandoned us. We lost two of our pensioners this morning all because they have no money to treat themselves.
“Mr SSG, tell the governor that our protest would continue until we get a concrete resolution before we end the protest. We have over 10,000 pensioners on the ground and we will occupy government house until we are paid.”
The SSG denied government’s knowledge of any pensioner who hasn’t been paid their pension and gratuity, adding that the government is seeking means to generate funds to settle pension issues in the state.
He further assured that the pension issue would be resolved before the end of the month.
“There are a lot of anomalies in the pension system in the state that we are trying to resolve. There are ghost pensioners. There are pensioners who are underpaid. There are pensioners who are collecting more than they are supposed to. There are those who have retired but haven’t collected pension, and there is non-availability of adequate data of pensioners at the local government level.
“The government is not deliberately hurting pensioners. It is doing its best within its available resources. If there is any surplus money, the government puts it into pension.
“Please give us time, before the end of this month, we will address your issues,” Matane pleaded.
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