Hundreds of pensioners on Wednesday besieged the entrance gate to
Government House, Makurdi, Benue State over non-payment of 25 months pension
arrears and gratuity.
The angry pensioners, sighted carrying placards bearing various inscription
such as Ortom, Pay Us Our 25 Months Pension Arrears And Gratuity; Ortom, Enough
Is Enough and Governor Ortom Has Been Out Of Benue State For Three Weeks In USA
And Japan, among others.
They appealed to President Muhamnadu Buhari to help Benue Pensioners,
saying they were dying in silence in their own country.
The retirees also urged Governor Ortom to create Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs) camps for pensioners in the state, noting that their deaths on
daily basis were due to the inability to pay their medical bills.
Leader of the pensioners, Comrade Peter Ikyado, who lamented that the
governor ignored elderly people who have rendered selfless service to their
fatherland to die in silence, noted that they have not committed any crime by
retiring.
The pensioners lamenting their inability to send their children to school, questioned
why the Governor found it difficult to pay their pensions and gratuity in spite
of the yearly budgetary provision in the state’s budget for them.
But in its reaction, Chief Press secretary to the governor, Tever Akase,
said Ortom was fully committed to the welfare of senior citizens and appealed
to the pensioners to trust the assurances the governor gave them through the
Deputy Governor and Head of Service recently.