By By Our Correspondent
There are indications that the plight of pensioners in Nasarawa State would plunge from bad to worse following a decision of the state government to consider the suspension of all payments of pension as a result of a pending court case.
It would be recalled that a group of concerned pensioners has dragged the state government to court over the government’s decision to continue paying retirees only fifty percent of their monthly pension since September 2016 as well as non-payment of their gratuities.
Nasarawa Eye investigation revealed that the leadership of the Concerned Group of Pensioners headed by one Alhaji lbrahim had addressed a mammoth crowd of aggrieved retirees in Lafia, the state capital recently and explained that the decision to take the government to court was a collective one after several attempts at convincing the government to see reason failed.
He maintained that it was not only inhumane but an insult for the government to pay a pensioner entitled to either five or ten million naira gratuity just one hundred thousand naira only, whereas the same government has been paying only fifty percent of their pension contrary to the provision of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, hence the decision to collectively fight for their rights.
Alhaji Ibrahim also pointed out that the group was not interested in overthrowing the government of the day nor in being recalled to the civil service, stressing that all they want is justice and to be accorded their fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution.
Nasarawa Eye also gathered that many pensioners have died in the last two years allegedly because they could not afford to buy ordinary drugs with their percentage pension.
It was also reliably gathered that summons from the court in Makurdi were since distributed to all the key government functionaries in the state including the state Commissioner of Finance and Accountant General, the state Commissioner of Justice/ Attorney General as well as all CEO’s of relevant agencies and parastatals in the dispute.
Meanwhile, Nasarawa Eye further gathered that some of the key government functionaries were already seeking to unnecessarily prolong the case with adjournments to facilitate the government’s suspension of payments of pension all together in a bid to teach them a lesson.
Similarly, Nasarawa Eye further gathered that during the aforementioned meeting speaker after speaker rose to express their solidarity with the leadership of the group and their disappointment with the action of the state government, branding the government as insensitive, inhumane and totally insincere.
However, observers who recalled the initial goodwill enjoyed by the state government and the subsisting change mantra of the APC-led administration in the state have expressed optimism that reason would eventually prevail through plausible path of negotiation, atonement and reconsciliation.