Pensioners in Ogun State, on Wednesday, shut down the state secretariat housing the governor’s office in protest against the non-payment of their 10 years outstanding gratuity amounting to N68 billion.
The pensioners, under the auspices of Local Government Pensioners Association (LOGPAN), blocked the two gates of the secretariat in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, locking out the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Tokunbo Talabi, and other civil servants for over four hours.
The pensioners carried placards with inscriptions such as “Gratuities are on sale to pensioners”; “Governor Dapo Abiodun, honour your father and treat pensioners well” and “Governor Abiodun, we don’t deserve this worst humiliation”.
It would be recalled that members of LOGPAN in Ogun had in June staged a similar protest to express their grievances.
Addressing journalists, the Ogun Chairman of LOGPAN, Sikiru Ayilara, lamented the inhuman treatment being meted to them by the Gov Dapo Abiodun administration.
He accused the governor of failing to keep his promises to the pensioners; lamenting that some of them still earned the paltry sum of N3,000 as monthly pension.
Mr Ayilara described the quarterly payment of N500m by the governor, which according to him would take 34 years to clear all the gratuities, as “a wicked act” which was unacceptable.
He, therefore, called for the review of the policy and the government voting N1bn monthly instead of the N500m.
Ayilara insisted that it was illegal for the state government to be paying their pension through the Ministry of Finance instead of the Bureau for Local Government Pensions.
Responding, the SSG, Talabi, appealed to the pensioners to be more patient with the government, saying, “The government is currently experiencing hard times,” and assured that the government would look into their demands.
