Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has appealed to protesting Benue Pensioners in the state to reason with him, embrace dialogue and end the protest as he was determined to change their plight using all available means.
Gov. Ortom stated this while addressing pensioners on Friday, three days after they began an indefinite protest to demand payment of 19 and 25 months pensions and gratuities from the government.
The governor appealed that as part of palliative measures, he had already approved the sum of N611 million for the payment of April and May pension arrears to retirees assuring that they would start receiving alerts on Monday or Tuesday next week, just as he urged them to exercise patience to enable him source money to pay the arrears.
Ortom said he was pained that his “fathers and mothers” were passing through such hardships saying ” on behalf of the government of Benue State, I apologize to you our fathers and mothers. You don’t deserve this.”
The governor explained that he inherited over 17 billion of gratuities and over 37 billion pensions, but stressed that he was determined in solving the problem because government was continuity.
He said the state government would establish Pensions Commission (PENCOM) to address issues of pension and gratuity, stressing that the domestication and inauguration of Pension Commission would also go a long way in addressing the challenge.
But the pensioners, some whom had started receiving alerts, insisted that government must meet their demands.
Asked whether he will allow the protesters to continue blocking the government house gate, Governor Ortom said, “We don’t need to force them, they are our fathers and mothers. But I hope they will reason amongst themselves on my appeal”.
He added that his inability to pay them was not deliberate as he never stopped looking for solutions to end their plight.
The Chairman of Concerned Pensioners, a faction of Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, Benue chapter, Mr. Peter Kyado said the governor’s appeal did not meet their expectations, insisting that they would continue to sleep by the gate of government house if they were not paid meaningfully out of what they were owed.
He said ‘senior citizens’ elsewhere were placed on first line chat, crying out that the governor should also do so in Benue.
In another twist, leadership of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP Benue State Chapter has distanced itself from the protest organised by the ‘Concerned Pensioners’ in the state, saying the protest was instigated and had a political undertone.
State Chairman of the Union, Joseph Kyume, stated this on Friday while speaking with journalists shortly after he led a delegation to present the position of the Union to Governor Samuel Ortom at government House, Makurdi.
Mr. Kyume said the Union had held talks with the State Government and had agreed on harmonisation of payment of pensions to all categories of retirees in the state.
He stated that the governor has obliged the Union’s request to domesticate the Federal Government’s Contributory Pensions Scheme, PENCOM, in the state and had also inaugurated the commission to address the problem of pensioners in the state.
Ikyume noted that the protesting group was anchored by suspended leaders of the Union who had gone to court but lost, saying the union in the state would not allow itself to be dragged into partisan politics.
