Pensioners in the South-East have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to jail all persons involved in pension fraud in the country.
Leaders of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, South-East Zone, who made the demand in a communique issued after a meeting in Enugu, also pledged their support for the President’s anti-corruption campaign.
They urged their members in the zone to support the ongoing war on corruption with prayers.
“The meeting expressed its total support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s war against corruption, impunity and fraud.
“It urges the President to bring to justice all those who defrauded pensioners of their entitlements.
“It calls on all pensioners in the zone to support the anti-corruption campaign with their prayers and activities,” the communique, signed by the South-East Zonal Chairman of the NUP, Comrade Damian Udeani, said.
The South-East pensioners equally urged Buhari to set up a mechanism to monitor the disbursement of bailout funds meant for payment of arrears of retirement benefits.
In the same vein, they condemned what they described as the “hostile” attitude of Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to pensioners in the state.
According to them, Okorocha has not paid pensions for up to 12 months.
“The zonal meeting reviewed the pension payment situation in the zone and noticed with dismay the hostile attitude of the Imo State Government in denying the state’s pensioners of their pensions for as many as 12 months.
“It wondered why the Imo State Governor, who was adjudged the most pensioner-friendly governor in 2014, should now turn round to strangulate his senior citizens,” the communique said, while calling on Okorocha to “immediately” pay pensioners their benefits.
The leaders of the South-East Zone of the pensioners’ union expressed anger at the plight of retired primary school teachers in Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and Imo states, and demanded an immediate payments of outstanding arrears owed to the retired tutors.
They also demanded the establishment of state pensions boards in states in the zone, noting that currently, there is an absence of functional pensions boards as is obtainable in other parts of the country.
The pensioners equally demanded the transfer of pensioners in parastatals to the civil service pension payment system.
The communique said, “The meeting condemns in strong terms the treatment meted out to state parastatal pensioners who are owed months and years of pension arrears.
“It urges all states in the zone to transfer parastatal pensioners to the civil service pension payment system.”
“The meeting urges all states that have not implemented the contributory pension scheme to do so immediately so that future payment of pensions will not depend on the whims and caprices of those in authority,” the pensioners added.
They equally urged the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate to conduct the biometric verification of pensioners in the zone who were not accommodated during the last exercise.
-punchng